Research Cluster 15 15.5 The Bartlett School of Architecture 2014 15.6 Figs. 15.5 – 15.7 Silvia Asuni ‘Centuriatio: Expropriating the Territory of Sardinia’. This thesis focuses on Sardinia, which is perfectly suited for an historical analysis of the military conflicts and geopolitical manifestations of power and control that have influenced the present condition of an island in the Mediterranean. It proposes a long-term scenario that profoundly restructures the physical and political organisation of Sardinia. It introduces a new territorial device that functions both as a system of measurement, as a new infrastructure, that reshapes the entire territory. It constructs a family of architectural objects that let a territorial machine operate seamlessly together with the small scale of the architecture. The critical nature of the project provides points of reflection about a possible line for the development of a methodology to 64
approach and discuss the role of management of the territory through different scales. Four paradigmatic cases are selected. Capo Teulada, for the presence of a military base and the material and the invisible traces left on the soil. Arborea, being the location of a new form of productive agricultural settlement that was introduced during fascism after an environmental reclamation of the area. Coastlines, for a proposal that goes beyond the classic touristic village. Finally, the city of Villaputzu, which was strongly affected by diseases due to its proximity to the military polygon of ‘Salto di Quirra’.