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Water-ways from Naples to Miseno

Maria Ines PASCARIELLO,1 Maria Rosaria TRINCONE2 (1)

Faculty of Engineering, University of Naples, Naples, Italy mipascar@unina.it (2)

ITI Marie Curie, Naples, Italy trincone@tin.it Abstract Over time, the water-ways that lead from Naples to Miseno have mapped out the area and changed the lines of its appearance. They have shaped the landscape and developed intertwining networks across it, both above and below ground. At times these are visible, at times submerged. Here they are natural; there they are the result of human intervention. They are the signs of long-term phenomena, of large environmental and territorial transformations which have characterised the different interaction between man and landscape. In this perspective it is evident that integration of knowledge and an interdisciplinary approach to actions is all the more necessary. Analysis and reconstruction of the water-ways that lead from Naples to Miseno, a special section of our urban landscape, are the subject of research work that aims to identify and develop the qualitative relationship with the places where we live, woven into history and technique and unavoidably linked to the sea. The investigation route follows the traces of these ways from the city to the surrounding areas, filling in gaps and making hypotheses where traces have been lost. It focuses on defined architectural and archaeological points (such as springs and reservoirs), on the network elements, the aqueducts, and goes up the coast to the ports of Baia and Miseno, and the seabed. At the same time, analysis conducted on representative artifacts of archaeological sites in the Phlegraean area and on sunken tracks (both underground and under the sea) can be identified as parametric and, as a result of media mapping and thematic and dynamic support, representations of the region’s archaeological potential take shape that allow us to understand and plan for intervention work and land transformation. Keywords: water-ways, survey, representation, database

1. The region (Maria Ines PASCARIELLO) Water, an indicator of life. A resource to be found in the most remote corners of the earth. “Humile et pretiosa et casta” water. It has always been the subject of poetry, music and literature. Throughout the ages it has played a leading role in architecture, which it is closely linked to for functional and aesthetic reasons. It has been a key figure in defining the region and changing its linear appearance. It has shaped the landscape and developed an intertwining network across this, which runs both above and below ground, is sometimes visible and sometimes submerged, sometimes natural and sometimes the work of man. Eternal, deep, and essential – the bond between water and the region contains and, at times, manifests the deepest reasons behind settlements, urbanisation, the economy and life. The subject of ongoing research work carried out in the region, the analysis and reconstruction of the water-ways that cross Naples and branch out into the region of the Phlegraean Fields (mapping out an important

stretch of our urban landscape) aim to highlight the qualitative relationship with the places where we live, which are interwoven with history and technique. Water-ways can be traced in the subsoil, but the signs and tracks are also signposted above the urban surface. Architecture and sculpture define and map out water points with fountains, which dot the entire urban area and form junctions for water-ways. Using these water points, it is therefore possible to trace the underground route of the water-way to the springs and the reservoirs, with a meta-temporal path that connects the urban centre with the Phlegraean area and Baia, Bacoli and Miseno, where historical eras intertwine and overlap, taking us back to the origins and foundation of the city. What the investigation reveals is a sample area in the Mediterranean basin which represents the local culture of Magna Graecia and is of great archaeological and architectural potential. A symbol and type of Mediterranean cities (those directly created out of the Greek and Roman Civilisation, with their unique form of rationality and with aesthetic values that over time have become ideals shared by Western culture) the architectural features represent a permanency, a constant in an ever-changing context that subjects the architectural features of every city to a progressive change.

Pict. 1: Example of tracking of the region object of study (the bay of Pozzuoli). The software we are experiencing, allows to connect to any plan data relating with photos, drawings, numerical information, etc. (In the picture, for example, the plan was attached an image).

1.1 Lines, networks and points In a multi-centric, network-based vision of the space surrounding us (where individual identities constitute an amazing resource for learning about the region), surveying and drafting enable us to describe an urban landscape that, crossed by water, is often unable to see continuity between full and empty, between under and above, between inside and outside. Architecture becomes a vessel for water and the water, in turn, brings it to life. The engineer becomes the technician and the water becomes the governing fabric of the region. In a reading of the urban area, differences emerge in habitats and in the ways we live in a region; different ecologies map out a network of urban and social geographies with specific macro and micro scale identities. An “established” city exists, or rather the historical city that continues to persist in the layout, architecture and shapes. The “sea” town exists, the “linear” town made up of crossing paths, connecting lines, borders, profiles and edges. A reading of the Neapolitan region, as a collection of specific identities, has involved the micro-scale in this work. The micro-scale is to be seen as the local neighbourhood (a centre of life and expression of the society that calls for the reconfiguration of urban liveability) and also small-scale architecture, the architectural detail, which makes the difference in the identification of quality. Study and survey data collection aims to understand the city and outline its cultural and social identities, according to the rationale of belonging to a place and the recognition of a precise urban centrality. The region around Naples is complex and the multiple parts that compose it and describe its essence manifest this complexity; the interior of the city, meanwhile, seems to be made up of multiple, distinct potentialities. This approach, which seeks to combine concrete experience (or rather reality) with vision, finds its synthesis in the creation of a possible observation of the city, in the translation of that which, in the making, should be or we would like to be our city. The privileged object of this vision is architecture, which is represented through images and designs that convey the essence of the city without having to draw the whole every time, in every fragment. With design, the context can be understood and situations can be communicated. We are able to make a critical reflection on the things that came before use. Using survey we are able to face things with modus: what arises is a way of being in reality with moderation, expressing the need to give shape to a complex spatiality according to a linguistic code that studies the substance of architecture. Of course, the representation space still remains forever an artificial space that overshadows but does not entirely embrace reality. Points, lines and planes are abstract entities of space that, through geometric language, are transferred in formal units commonly known by the name of pictures. Yet right in the space instantly stopped by drafting, points, lines and planes are released from their positional value and acquire relational value and - investigated in their reciprocal relations, evaluated in their dynamic equilibrium and used in the proper degree of belonging to the visual system - are reorganised in a new and original image: the water-way.

2. Water tracks (Maria Rosaria TRINCONE) «Places have a meaning for us as they are tied to sensations and images that bring them to life and that are not necessarily ours. The soul of places, the sense of their being, is independent from us. But this soul is determined by their temporal fragility. Time modifies them and gives them an enchanted aura. Nostalgia, as essential sentiment, takes control. Puddles, ruins, fragments of the world, places that are not necessarily noble are the sense of being.» [1] Everyone can identify with a place established in terms of elementary organizational patterns of topological type, which enables us to read and reread certain spaces of reference according to the concept of figuration. Everything that is objectively concrete has that property, determined by the “shape, colour or disposition that facilitate the formation of vividly identified, powerfully structured and highly functional environmental images. It could be called readability or perhaps visibility in a wider sense where objects can not only be seen but are also acutely and intensely presented to the senses”. [3] retracing past events in the memory, simply because they acknowledged both the practical and emotional meaning of an architectural object and its function within

the “existential space”. [2]

In this way, a structure is The city therefore becomes the appointed place for this sensory experience, rendering tangible its legibility in the architectural space as a representation of its memories, its history and its daily events; the symbolic-formal and evocative place that guarantees individuality and the recognition of those meanings which are potentially present in the structure of the urban environment.

Pict. 2: Database example: by clicking on a placeholder, the image appears on the artifact concerned, then again by clicking on a portion of the image will open a zoom to detail. (The tab, shown in picture 2, of the database was developed by Maria Rosaria Trincone). Location of water tracks (Layer 1 – Water tracks: the fountains in the center of Naples): 1. Fontana Fonseca or del Sebeto, Cosimo and Carlo Fanzago, Salomone Rapi, 1635; 2. Fontana del Marinaretto, (or del Pescatoriello), Raffaele Marino, XX sec.; 3. Fontana del Mergoglino, del Leone, unknown author, XVIII sec.; 4. Fontana della Sirena, Onofrio Buccino, XIX sec.

Pict. 3: Finally, the next step allows to connect to each element, selected while browsing through the database, designs and drawings produced by the survey of each objects under study. (The survey and the drawings have been performed by Maria Rosaria Trincone).

The streets, squares, urban voids (which can be recognised by the wealth of their symbolic values, activities or functions) relate qualitatively with the constructed in a bi-unique manner, despite having have constructive and formal characters, independent from the shape, type and characteristics of the buildings that define them. The square, which by its spatial connotation meets the community’s need to have a place in which public and private activities can be carried out, is the place where events and architecture face each other in a very strong manner. More than any other urban space, the void-square qualifies as a place of excellence because it relates to everything through a representative image in which the monuments and civil and religious buildings have determined its image “soaked with memories and meanings”. [3] Unfortunately and ruthlessly, the variable of time modifies the signs of shape. Squares, building and streets become fragments of different tales. It is as if the relationship between architectural space and space of existence which the city has had since the act of its foundation is lost. [4] With its geometric centres of mass and symbolic fulcrums as archetypal and psychological references fundamental to man, the matrix of the ancient city fades with the passing of time, eliminating those elements that render it recognisable. The perception of the existential space, seen as a sequence of images from the same narrative, is however unrelated to the variable of time. Its memory cannot be lost because even the critical reading of urban fragments (like a public fountain, a façade, a part of a street) reminds us of it. It is possible to grasp its configurative complexity by interpreting the fact in itself, crossing the material limit of the object itself to build a conceptual reference grid where each characteristic element of the place can be inserted. A conceptual operation which, only by observing the phenomenon and “the places where conflict hides”, [5] is it possible to reconstruct the system that helps us understand the architectural object. Measure and design are necessary aspects in the re-appropriation of the meaning of place as a space for time stratifications, flowing ruthlessly and determining the fragility of things. Withdrawing time from representation, recovering the corresponding image of the historic memory through the passage of lines and surfaces in the dimension of design, is not the nostalgic vision of past reality, but the true perception of the sense of being part of time. In this way it is possible to take possession of the city by exploring it in the dimensions of the drawing. Through the logical consequence of geometric-descriptive methods, it gives the image of the space the ability to evoke perceptual relationships that settle between the observer and the observed. Graphical drafting becomes the dialogue between the parts in this relationship which, through the symbolic code of graphic signs, builds the concrete structure of the architectural spaces. The design, therefore, will no longer be seen as intellectual opportunity, but the opportunity to preserve the memory of places, with hypothetical forms that develop the ability to distinguish those spatial configurations erased by time and transformed into fragments.

3. Considerations and aims (Maria Ines PASCARIELLO) Research ideas concern the problems connected to the acquisition and processing of data in drafting the region and the environment. Morphology, in particular, is investigated through architectural and archaeological emergencies following survey practices and methods, including photogrammetry, laser scanning, remote sensing (including under water), digital and thematic mapping, and the development of graphical models. Furthermore, if the aim of analysis and development work is the respect of local identities, guaranteeing a better quality of life, this needs to be directed not only at the emergency issues but also towards less well-known buildings, those which perhaps are more at risk and which have undoubtedly maintained a closer relationship with the original social and cultural context. This can be facilitated by direct involvement by local people and the cultural associations which have a socially active part in the project. A special role will therefore be given to awareness raising among all social strata of the population, to promote the fact that conservation and development of archaeological heritage helps enrich everybody’s existence. This will be followed up with field documentary work which collects and summarises results from the research work and spreads the content in scientific terms. The need for analysis that is designed to provide a sharable system of knowledge is to be carried out through targeted observation of the architectural and archaeological heritage, the result of the need to preserve the cultural heritage by proposing a precise monitoring methodology. One possible line of direction is to work in accordance with the one individual rationale that, at the same time, considers the typical approach of the surveyor, with urban and environmental analysis, and those who decide and those who carry out the work in sync.

This way, the data collector becomes the interpreter of a tool and the populariser of a methodology which does not exclusively aim to describe and represent the actual conservation state of the analysed environment, but aims to bring out the priorities of the work in a general programme for regional planning and redevelopment. Starting with an analysis of the individual architectural property, and reaching the region, the aim is to propose an investigative approach which makes it possible to carry out instrumental analysis and data collection, which can be updated over time compared to coded assessments. The tool aims to define a classification system with which to monitor the state of preservation and vulnerability; both the factors responsible for the deterioration of property and the hazard and risk areas. The investigative approach will aim to provide themed documentation in which to present an area, as a physical entity, morphologically defined in relation to its social and economic essence. Creating an alpha-numerical language with which data becomes code, and code becomes graphical sign, will therefore respond to the aim of providing the necessary data for defining the values that characterise the property under analysis. It is hoped that the research activity carried out by the unit will lead (through a completed study of a sample area) to the creation of a disciplinary methodology, structured on its own methods of investigation and clear aims, which can define the renewal of field intervention procedures in the area of protection and development. Archaeological emergencies, therefore, seen as structural elements of the landscape, will be studied and analysed in architectural, archaeological, geophysical and touristic terms, which together contribute to the planning of regional development, its transformation, use and development.

References

[1] PEREGALLI, Roberto. I luoghi e la polvere. Sulla bellezza dell’imperfezione. Milan. Bompiani Essays, 2010.

[2] NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian. Existence, Space and Architecture, London. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

[3] LYNCH, Kevin. L’immagine della città. Venice. Marsilio library, 1998.

[4] STARACE, Francesco. L’esempio di Zeusi. Principi architettonici nell’età antica. Naples. CUSL, 1984.

[5] TORSELLO, Benito Paolo. Figure di pietra. Venice. Marsilio, 2006.