The safeguarding and enhancement of the Historic and Traditional businesses of the Historical Centre of Florence

Abstract

The relationship between the historic city and the businesses that form an essential testimony of the historical and cultural urban evolution is an emerging theme on the international scene. The research program has analyzed the traditional economic and social context of the centre of Florence in relation to the city’s urban zoning and building facades. The study highlighted the need to integrate the documentation and survey phases of the physical realities of the places of commerce with the recording of intangible cultural heritage. The latter are strongly interlinked with the authenticity of a place its features, whose disappearance may irreversibly change the environment itself. The introduction of this patrimonial category, with the UNESCO convention of 2003, led to the development of investigation tools and protocols that also involved, specifically, the scientific sector of architectural-urban design and survey to evaluate the impact of intangible features on the evolution of the city’s image over time.