CNR-JSPS Bilateral Program 2018-2019: “Damage assessment and conservation of underground space as valuable resources for human activities use in Italy and Japan” Presentation at the first visit of the Italian team in Japan (June 2018) Roberta Varriale (CNR-ISSM): "Damage assessment and conservation of underground space as valuable resources for human activities use in Italy and Japan".

1. Damage assessment and
conservation of underground
space as valuable resources
for human activities use in
Italy and Japan
CNR-JSPS Bilateral program 2018-2019
Roberta Varriale
varriale@issm.cnr.it
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

2. The Italian TEAM
Roberta Varriale (Urban Historian) ISSM
Laura Genovese (Archaeologist) ICVBC
Marco Leo (Computer science engineer) ISASI
Mario Parise (Geologist) University of Bari
Bruno Venditto (Sociologist) ISSM

3. Underground space and
the management of aboveground
urban conflicts
• Environmental and urban history
• Natural and social conflicts
• Sustainable urban development
• Long period
• Cultural heritage valorization, green-economy, risk management and
smart cities planning

4. UNDERGROUND BUILT HERITAGE (UBH)
The complex of underground artifacts caved in the
past to manage urban functions and now
significant part of local cultural heritage

5. All phases of the decisional process:
• Selection of sites
• Individuation of the most suitable reconversion practice according to the
historical use
• Preservation and safeguard of the comunicative value within the reconversion
What is the role played by historical classification
within the reconversion planning?

6. Urban history approach, the projects:
• Undergrounds in Naples
• Underground in Europe
• Undergrounds in the Mediterranean
• Bilateral agreement Italy-China
• Comparative study Italy-Algeria

7. 3 different levels of action for UBH
regeneration
• cultural heritage itself: monitoring, communication of
historical functions, restoration, fruition as a cultural site
(installations of technological instruments to diffuse the
underground culture, reconstruction of underground life)
• same functions as in the past: the historical sites restored
and used again according new parameters (productive
spaces reinvented according to the contemporary
standards, sustainable living)
• new functions: the sites are restored and new functions
are located but the communicative role is preserved (shops,
hotels, restaurants, urban facilities in pre-existent
underground spaces)

8. Italy-Japan
Case study: Naples and Matera
• Visit 2018: NAPLES
• Visit 2019: MATERA

9. Naples is known as the underground city
• Greek settlers used yellow tuff to build the city, reconverted caves in
cisterns, built the first aqueduct “the Bolla” and caved their necropolis
extra moenia.
• Romans built the second aqueduct, “the Claudio”, the catacombs of San
Gennaro and thermal facilities.
• During Middle ages new necropolis were built and dismissed caved were
used as wheat and oil deposits.
• During the Spanish domination the importation of building materials from
outside was forbidden for demographic reasons and the citizens started
caving in the city subsoil to build: underground became the negative face
of the aboveground city.
• Dismissed caved were used as collective burial places during epidemics till
XVIII Century.
• During XIX Century dismissed caves supported local economy
• During Second World War, underground networks were used as bunkers

10. UBH
Naples Defence
Communication
Food
Food
cells
Oil and wheat
deposits
Transports
Water
management
Social
Interactions
Knowledge
Economy
Religion
Living
spaces
Caved
houses
Urban
sanitation
Landslides
Environmental
worning
Coast
changes
Underground
houses
Environmental
Conflicts
Necropolis
Catacombs
Acqueducts
Sewers
Black
pools
Water
pools
Bunkers
Castle
prisons
Escape
tunnel
I sectorII sector
Food
transformation
Wharehouses
Tuff caves
StablesFarming
Fascist tags
Refugee graffiti
SsttraStratifications
Vines

11. Selected case-study in Naples
• Pizzofalcone Hill
• Fontanelle cemetery in the Sanità district
• Posillipo coastal caves (monitoring)

13. Galleria Borbonica
Built as an escaping route during
Bourbons’ domination
Transformend into a deposit

14. Pizzofalcone Hill
Modern Age
Tuff cave
Pre-existant
aqueducts
Escaping
tunnel
Deposit for
impounded
cars
Second World War Bunker
Car Parking
Leisure space
Museum

15. The Fontanelle Cemetery in the Sanità district
Tuff cave
Food
management
•Olives and pickles
•Under salt anchovies
•Stokfish
•Mushrooms cultivation
•Animals breeding
Public
cemetery
Museum

16. Monitoring case study: Via Posillipo 26 caves

17. Matera: the CAVED CITY
Sometimes the underground experience was extreme …
• Underground was the place for urban development itself
• The idea of negative building culture was used in Matera in order to
face and solve adverse social and climatic conditions:
Strong annual
temperatures ranges
Plateau
Water scarcity

18. MATERA 2019: the European capital of Culture

19. UBH
MATERA Defence
Communication
Food
Food
cells
Public
ovens
Transports
Water
management
Social
Interactions
Knowledge
Economy
Religion
Living
spaces
Caved
houses
Urban
sanitation
Landslides
Environmental
worning
Environmental
Conflicts
Necropolis
Caved Churces
Il Palombaro
Cisterns
prisons
I sectorII sector
Food
transformation
Wharehouses
Tuff caves
StablesFarming
SsttraStratifications
Vines
grafiti
Public
fountains

20. Selected cases in Matera
• Original Sin Caved church • Casa Cava(Caved house)

21. Vulnerability
Unicity
Extreme
Preservation
Caved cities Gentrification
Static
Representatio
n of history
Food
Extended
networks
Focus on
major artfacts
Private use,
dismission
Economy
Transport
Sanitary
Water
Religion
Functional
classification Criticity Actions
Stratification
Inglobment
of Layers
Fixed and
technical
supports
Valorization of historical
funtions in Matera
Casa grotta di
Vico Solitario
Il
Palombaro
Project
ATA2018
BRAND
protection
musealization
ZATEMA:
Original Sin
church: Caved
Sistine
Chappel)
IGP2018
Domenico
Ridola
Museum
Projects

22. Monitoring the risck (Marco Leo):
Naples case study: coastal cave in Via Posillipo
First acquisition Second acquisition

23. Point cloud comparison
A region in the cloud with
substantial metrical differences
along two acquisition sessions.
Differences have to be pointed
out if they lay outside the
intrinsic sensor uncertainty.

24. Using the sweep v1.0 , at a
distance of 6 meters the
uncertenty is about 2 cm.
More accurate sensors are
required to increase
reliability.
During the project e will try
to minimize uncertenty
trough high level reasonings
(e.g. object segmentation
and classification) inherited
from computer vision field.
Research activity

25. Knowledge improvement (Laura Genovese)
Data collection and analysis of historical
and archaeological information (also
coming from documents, iconography,
maps, photos, etc.) related to the
underground heritage

26. Methods and Tools for Sustainable Enhancement
Solutions to improve artificial caves
cultural utilization and the
integrated enhancement within a
broader territorial scale.
Project results dissemination.