LOCAL APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE AUTOPOIETIC COMMUNITIES 19

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LOCAL APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE
Technique: AUTOPOIETIC COMMUNITIES
Local name: Matera and Murge Plateau
Site: Matera and Murge Plateau

Location

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Continent: Europe
Country: Italy
Site: Matera and Murge Plateau
Coordinates:
Lat: 40.66
Long: 16.60

Description of the local variant of the technique

The inhabited Karst zones of Lucania and in particular the city of Matera, arise at the edge of deep valleys, the canyons, from the sporadic water flow or nothing. The sediments are deposited at the top of the plateau or along its steep slopes. These cities are the synthesis of the organization of space created through the succession of the different socio-cultural groups that inhabited those places. The hunter-gatherers left traces of their presence in the natural caverns that open up in the hardest rock of the canyons; in Neolithic times the limestone plateau was populated through the dissemination of the many villages surrounded by moats; farmers in the Metal Age were not in conflict with the previous Neolithic diffusion because they occupied the slope. The physical synthesis of different cultures and the three geographical environments is realized like this: ground, slope, and caves. The stones of Matera are the most complex example of a local combination of different principles of production of water, urban plot for the management of resources, and an integrated and autopoietic ecosystem. The excavation of caves drains the slope and the interior of the rock, making a cavity and creating a usable water reserve for the inhabitants and the cultivated terrace. With the same materials of the excavation homes are built, prolonging the perimeter caves of each terrace and creating protected courtyards. Here rainwater captured on rooftops is collected in wells, in order to have sloping aquifers inside rather than outside of the walls, where the community life of the neighborhood takes place. The tombs, constantly at 15 degrees Celsius above zero, provide warm during winter and cool in summer. The plots of narrow streets and stairways is functional to the channeling of the rainwater for cultivation of terraces, with urban growth, are saturated with homes or are transformed into hanging gardens.

Survival prospects

20% Preserved and functional (technique at risk)

Images

Deepening


TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUE DATA

Technique
AUTOPOIETIC COMMUNITIES
Icon
Cathegory
G - Social organization, art and spirituality
Identification code
G14
Other Local applications of the technique

RELATED TECHNIQUES

Author:
IPOGEA, www.ipogea.org
Other authors:
Reference: