The reconstruction

The reconstruction of earthquake-stricken Friuli took about ten years to complete. By the mid-1980s, virtually everyone whose home had been damaged or destroyed was living in a new, safer building. There are no comparable examples of such speed and effectiveness, at least in Italy, given the magnitude of the seismic event and the affected area.

The ‘as it was, where it was’ principle that guided this work was best exemplified by the reconstruction of historic city centres that had been destroyed. In order to restore them, modern anti-seismic techniques were employed, and the cooperation of all concerned parties was necessary: the Municipal administrations, which had broad autonomy in urban planning; architects, professionals and businesses, who mediated between the inhabitants’ wishes and technical constraints; and finally, the population itself, which contributed to the most important decisions in crowded public assemblies. The towns of Gemona and Venzone are the best-known examples of achieving this shared purpose, but it also came to fruition in Buja, Artegna and other smaller towns and settlements.

The system that was employed, which was based on the technical standardisation of interventions and the on-site reconstruction of residential housing, reduced the scope for stylistic and constructional variation. The result was a strong uniformity of architectural language. ‘Modern’ styles found expression in public and religious buildings, as well as factories and production sites.

Another area in which collaboration between the private and public sectors was most effective was the recovery and safeguarding of cultural heritage. This included unprotected structures such as traditional dwellings, for which a specific regulatory category of intervention was created, as well as a significant number of artworks that were rescued, catalogued and studied for the first time, paving the way for their future enhancement. Exhibitions and conferences of international importance complemented this process, reinforcing the idea that a territory and its population are also defined by their culture.