CONZA DELLA CAMPANIA: A CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS Planning Effects on Form & Environment

One of the most catastrophic seismic events in Italy’s recent history eradicated numerous settlements in Upper Irpinia, extinguishing both their material fabric and their socio-cultural stratifications. Conza della Campania, entirely obliterated and subsequently reconstructed downstream from its historical locus, emerges as a paradigmatic case. This study adopts a multi-perspectival framework to interrogate the reconstruction process, shaped by the epistemic paradigms of modernist urban planning, and to assess its repercussions on morphological identity, environmental conditions, and inhabitants’ urban comfort. The comparison between the pre-earthquake settlement and its post-seismic reconfiguration exposes key theoretical tensions: the need for planning instruments capable of greater contextual responsiveness; the exploration of alternatives to rigidly codified urban models; the erosion, within contemporary urban systems, of spatialities mediating between human scale and landscape; and the capacity of urban form to negotiate the mounting challenges posed by climate and environmental instability.