The Enhancement of the Archaeological Area of Città Murata in Kos (Greece): From the Italian Project to a New Intervention Proposal

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the compositional dynamics which settled a previous project for the archaeological area of Città Murata in Kos (Dodecanese, Greece). It was designed by a team of architects and archaeologists, which during the Italian occupation (1912-1948) and after a disastrous earthquake in 1933, reorganized the entire urban city planning, through the drafting of an innovative master plan. The project here examined, due to G.B. Ceas, operating in Dodecanese until 1936, can be considered as a tile of a larger mosaic that aimed to enhance the city centre archaeological features. Moving from the analysis of the historical documents and the technical offices managers correspondence, is possible to follow step by step the entire design process, from the initial idea to its realization. The documents make clear that the archaeological remains and the possibility of hypothetical further findings determined the guide lines of a project forced to develop contemporary with the archaeological searches. This in fieri approach, as well as similar cases in the whole Dodecanese, had as first consequence the project continuous adaptation to the new discoveries. Besides, on these assumptions, and on the base of the researches of the Polytechnic of Bari team, directed by Giorgio Rocco and Monica Livadiotti, it is possible now to present a new intervention proposal for the enhancing of Città Murata, inspired to the old Italian project.