A matter of buildings. Damage to material elements of landscape and uncertainties about the future after the Pianura Padana earthquake (May-June 2012)

Abstract

The Pianura Padana earthquake caused heavy material damage to a relatively wide and composite geographic system. Cultural heritage was also seriously affected by the earthquake; several landmarks in the area were lost. Large buildings, including socially relevant ones, will not be used any longer either because destroyed in the seismic sequence or because repairing of suffered damage is not feasible or costefficient. Beyond the immediate economic and material consequences of the disaster, therefore, the earthquake induces non negligible changes in the region’s landscape. Although the problem appears to be limited to technical and economic evaluations, it turns out to be important from the standpoints of cultural and social geography as well. Any change in spaces brings about changes in the way they are perceived and felt by inhabitants. In other words, according to the well-known Yi Fu Tuan’s interpretation, any change in spaces implies a change in places. The Pianura Padana earthquake caused a tragic toll of victims and heavy impacts on local economies; but it also determined conditions which will affect, in the medium and long run, some views that people in the area will have about places of their daily life. Strange as it seems, in the final analysis this change in views, that is to say, something intimately geocultural in nature, depends upon the fact that some structures could stand the earthquake stresses better than others; or that some structures – even unique landmarks – were not fitted with strengthening equipment to upgrade their seismic-resistance capabilities. The sense of a belonging to a place and a community is something deeply immaterial and intimate. But it does depend, in a certain degree, on the perception that individuals and groups develop about the material elements surrounding them. In some cases, therefore, some part of the amor loci may become a matter of buildings.