Fra natura e costruito. Unità edilizie storiche nel paesaggio naturale. Interventi fra conservazione e valorizzazione

The integration between natural soil and buildings, of which Matera represent in Italy the most known case, is a settlement typology common to other middle-elevation centers in Italy (Puglia, Calabria). These often originating from pre-existing greek or high-medieval cave-dwellings sometimes later included into next buildings [4,8]. Case study proposed concerns some building units in Enna’s historic center in Sicily. Enna, greek origins settlement, has subsequently shaped according to islamic urban scheme, characterized sometimes by cave-houses, link with orogenetic context, and shared external spaces beetween the units, similar to other settlements with cave spaces [8,10,12,13]. The buildings units carve out internal spaces by rock subtraction and are often characterized by vertical connections inside them leading to different levels of the urban settlement due to site slope. Units often have low elevation road levels and lower levels, connected by vertical links to more private spaces (gardens) or shared semi-public spaces (courtyards or common access). The study has foreseen a classification of significant typologies, inheritance hypothesis, through interventions carried out in the sense of preservation of significant spaces and traditional techniques, and integration with materials according to logics and sustainable methodologies, in current architectural language . Inheritance and reintegration in urban units of such features, significant for place history becomes a way of recovering an existing environmental and social quality, often not recognized.