Identification and Interpretation of a Cultural Route: Developing integrated solutions for enhancing the vernacular historic settlements

Southern Italy and Central China plateaus are both located between latitude 34°- 40° north. These two areas are characterized by intensive historical use of underground space for the management of several urban and rural functions. The comparative analysis between Italy and China is at the base of the acknowledgement of the existence of a vernacular architecture related to climatic zones at a global level and whose successful enhancement must be collocated in the indications given within the ICOMOS 2019 International Conference in Rural Landscape and the celebrations of the troglodyte city of Matera (Italy) as 2019 European Capital of Culture. Beside the most famous historical locations - as Matera or Fujian Tulou (China) UNESCO sites - in both countries there are several less known sites characterized by vernacular architectures as well. Particularly, in China a peculiar typology of rural troglodyte villages, the yaodong, are scattered on the rough landscape of the Loess plateau, having been realized exploiting the ocher-colored silty soil. Although the great historical and identity value, many of those villages have been abandoned, having experienced economic, social and environmental problems. The paper introduces a comparative analysis between Italian and Chinese vernacular rural settlements based on a new methodology introduced by the Authors, and consisting into the use of two charts: the first dedicated to the functional classification of elements in the new class of Underground Built Heritage (UBH); the second addressed to the RE-USE actions planned for UBH. On the basis of this theoretical approach, the paper suggests the hypothesis of creating a cultural route as a solution to enhance those villages, setting up more and less known sites to optimize the use, so as to minimize the effects of overcrowding on the most popular one and maximizing social and economic rise in less developed ones, preserving livability and authenticity