Community Archive as Place-Based Decision-Making Process: A Proposal for the “Archivio Atena”

The construction of a community archive can be a tool for analysis, public engagement and support for activating social innovation and urban regeneration processes. The study presents the methodological proposal developed in an educational laboratory in cooperation between public entities, universities, and the third sector, for a local cultural and social regeneration project in the historic centre of Atena Lucana in the South of Italy. The proposed community archive aims to archive in a digital system the architectural and urban heritage of Atena Lucana’s historic centre to trigger processes of adaptive reuse and urban regeneration leveraging on a socio-spatial relationship. The paper proposed a methodology framework to co-design a multidimensional archive, which includes georeferenced hard and soft data deduced based on interviews, focus groups and collaborative mapping. A place-based community archive constitutes a spatial decision support system for urban regeneration. Based on specific objectives and methods, the community archive aims to develop sustainable and inclusive regeneration strategies.