Foligno city lab. The earthquake as a research opportunity

The dramatic effects of the earthquake that in September 1997 devastated Umbria and Marche are notorious. The electronic camera eye documenting live collapse of the tower lantern of Foligno municipal building provided viewers of every latitude with images that are still etched on their memory. Fifteen years after that event, the balance of the post-seismic reconstruction is certainly positive, so that the management model tested and the cultural know-how acquired during this experience have been exported and replicated in analogous emergency situations such as the 2012 earthquake in Emilia. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach and contaminations between different scientific fields Foligno succeeded in becoming a city lab, able to adopt either conservation or transformation, depending on the occasional specificity. By comparing the frame of the lantern during the instant of collapse with the picture of the Calamita cosmica by Gino De Dominicis surrounded by the amazing showcase of the former church of Annunziata, it is possible to realize that not only was the city of Foligno able to restore damaged buildings but also it deeply reinterpreted them. Under the sign of virtuous development, which derives from a shared knowledge.