Requalifying urban places: a qualitative approach

The study mainly concerns the effects resulting from a huge human load caused by an increasing tourist flow concentrated in focal points, namely heritage sites which due to their undoubted beauty and to intense area marketing operations, are subjected to the risk of gradual damage. In order to mitigate the risk, areas close to these sites can be identified so as to expand the visitor's range of action and offer alternative activities integrated with the main site. In this respect, the paper shows a qualitative method called PlaceMaker for analysing and design the urban landscape, which both detects elements that do not feature in traditional mapping and which constitute the contemporary identity of places, and identifies appropriate project interventions. In order to illustrate the method's potential, the results of the experimentation carried out in the Trevi-Pantheon route in Rome are illustrated. Two final complex maps respectively represent the identity of places and orientations for sustainable design of the de-congestion activities.