Globalism and Identity in Contemporary Mediterranean Architecture. Opposition or Coexistence?

Abstract

Globalization and identity are concepts too vague to describe the complexity of contemporary architecture and cities. In the past, for instance, some global integration processes turned into distinctive characteristics of particular contexts. The cardo-decuman layouts of the Hellenistic-Roman civilization are now part of the identity of most of the Western, Mediterranean and Levant urban fabrics. The introduction of bastion fortification systems, as a defense after the invention of firearms, produced new artifacts and urban geometries that radically differ from those that characterized the pre-existing fabrics in European cities and beyond. Today, however, they have become components of new and more complex identities. It is therefore appropriate to take into account concrete instances of proximity and hybridization where the global and the local are intertwined, as it clearly appears in the Mediterranean architectural panorama.

Keywords

• globalizzazione
• identità regionale
• mediterraneo.