LAUSR

Most terraced landscapes are found in so-called fragile areas that today are reconstructing their territorial identity and redefining new forms of territoriality. The transformation that territories are undergoing in general stems, first and foremost, from a new approach to their own resources with a view to building innovative paths to development. Starting from the importance of territorial practices in these fragile areas, as terraced landscapes, the contribution deals with the potentiality of these resources in the building of a specific place awareness. Exercising an awareness of place means supporting processes and policies designed to strengthen the interpretational capacity of a territory and its development. Place awareness, built in this way on short local networks, comes into contact with long networks and hybridises and adjusts in line with modern life and its changes. The case study proposed supports these reflections. It regards the experience of Alto Canavese territory in Piedmont Region (Italy). It is an interesting case study because the terraces, along with other features of the territory, were the basis upon which a heritage framework was reconstructed which could provide a new horizon of meaning for the territory and the sharing of a common heritage that could bring people together.