La Cartiera ducale di Fermignano nel territorio marchigiano: un esempio di patrimonio industriale tra restauro, recupero e riuso

Industrial archeology is the science that studies, in all its aspects and contents, both the findings and testimonies belonging to the period of the industrial revolution and the signs left by the process of industrialization in society and in human culture. Precisely because it is a very young discipline - born in fact in the 1950s in an Anglo-Saxon environment - the debate of the last years is focused on giving answers to the questions that many designers, having to intervene on industrial buildings, ask themselves that is: “the intervention methodology to be adopted must be the same as that adopted for historical buildings, based on respect and authenticity of the original characters? So, can industrial buildings be compared to historic buildings? So can we talk about restoration interventions for them too?”. The objective of this contribution is therefore to provide, through the treatment of the case study represented by the industrial complex of the former ducal paper mill of Fermignano, a further contribution to the reflections made to date within the cultural debate. In fact, the industrial heritage - deliberately defined as such and not with the best known notion of industrial archeology precisely to underline the great value it represents and the great possibilities it still offers today - made up of the former Ducal Paper Mill, whose construction dates back to the early fifteenth century and that became over time, with its transformations of use destinations (from paper mill to wool mill and silk factory) the third largest industrial area of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, is one of the many Italian cases where the place became the symbol for a territory of a productive past. This former industrial complex, even though in a state of neglect, still tells a story and is a precious testimony for the identity both of the city of Fermignano and the whole territory of Marche region. For these reasons, having noted that the paper mill has had in history and continues, even today, to have a value and a meaning of a single object to be considered not separately from the historical, productive, economic and social context and therefore linked to the urban fabric, it was considered necessary to draft a restoration, rehabilitation and reuse proposal aimed at safeguarding both the original contents of the former complex and to return a correct legibility to an urban fabric that currently has a gap. The purpose that is wanted to be reached is that to safeguard a part of the industrial history of a territory that today risks being forgotten and, in order to enhance the territory, to se sitize the population to be aware of the high identity value that the former paper mill owns.