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The study of historical-architectural and environmental cycle itineraries, such as to constitute "knowpaths" that enhance the memory of places by triggering virtuous mechanisms of revaluation of local economies, is the research theme of which we report the results in this contribution. The objective is to promote eco-sustainable crossing network models for the so-called "slow tourism".

Italian small villages, despite the significant variety denoting them, share the abundance of precious natural and cultural assets, the poor accessibility, the polycentrism that, historically, qualifies their settlements and a potential development process focused on the combination of innovation and tradition i.e., on the conservation and enhancement of their heritages. Scholars from different backgrounds have recently been emphasizing the need to adopt integrated revitalization policies in this regard, highlighting the role historic fabrics assume in their relationships - past, present, and future - with contexts. Investigating the current state of studies on the subject, the paper highlighted the instances, methods, purposes, and limits of the approaches reserved for "residence" in this scenario, composing their possible critic appraisal. I piccoli borghi del nostro Paese, pur nella rilevante varietà che li caratterizza, condividono l’abbondanza di pregiate risorse naturali e culturali, la scarsa accessibilità, il policentrismo che, storicamente, ne qualifica gli impianti e un potenziale sviluppo incentrato sul binomio innovazione/tradizione, cioè, sulla conservazione e la valorizzazione dei rispettivi patrimoni. Studiosi di diversa estrazione hanno sottolineato negli ultimi anni la necessità di adottare al riguardo politiche integrate di rivitalizzazione, dalle quali emerge il ruolo che le residenze di storico impianto rivestono nelle loro relazioni - passate, presenti e future - con il contesto. Ricostruendone lo “stato dell’arte”, il contributo indaga istanze, metodi, finalità e limiti degli approcci riservati alla “residenza” in questo scenario, offrendone un possibile bilancio critico

This issue includes the first version of the international Conference on Utopian & Sacred Architecture Studies (USAS) was held from 11 -13 June 2019 in association with Universita degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. The conference included many discussions that covered extremely important topics and presented theories and practices stimulated over the last five centuries in a wide range of scientific areas such as historiography, political science as well as literary and art studies. Topics: Utopia and religious and spiritual architecture Historical influence of ancient cities on new life Reconstruction of old theological buildings Utopian views for the future of cities: beyond sustainability Art, life, and prefiguration: stories of contemporary art and intentional communities Sacred spaces: opportunities forpromotingsocial inclusion and diversity Fictional spaces and imagery places: the language of built space Religion enquiry in art & architecture

One of the more controversial topics about the preservation of disused historic buildings regards how to ensure a sustainable future. This question is especially problematic respecting the increasing stock of worship places, like churches, fallen into disuse, closed, or abandoned. The recognition and the safeguard of tangible and intangible values associated with them raise many debates on how these buildings should be protected and handed down to the future, complying with the community’s current needs concurrently. Should there be limits on reusing former worship places? Given the changing meaning of sacredness over time, how should the ‘sacred values’ of disused church buildings be recognized and maintained? Can they be preserved adapting churches for new purposes? What about the building’s atmosphere? Should it be retained? Should it be adapted to the building’s new use? These and other questions, even involving the socioeconomic sphere, notably mark the field, given that the number of disused historic and modern Christian church buildings is still increasing throughout the West. Gathering different orientations and practices ranging from landmark preservation up to building refurbishment, the so-called ‘adaptive reuse’ of buildings has been becoming more and more often habitual within Western countries even for disused worship places. Conversions of former churches according to this trend are differently valuable from a preserving perspective, since they have often implied remarkable changes to the building’s identity and integrity, even compromising the recognition and the safeguard of intangible values associated with it. How should new uses be chosen, so that they do not endanger tangible and immaterial attributes of church buildings? Is adaptive reuse the most suitable strategy to approach all the cited issues? Providing a brief overview of what the adaptive reuse of Christian church buildings fallen into disuse methodologically consists of, the study aims to suggest some answers to the mentioned questions, resorting to last specific international recommendations and guidelines. The prime limits and implications of the adaptive reuse of these buildings have been thus profiled regarding the preservation of tangible and intangible values they involve, concluding that only a values-centered preserving approach can provide a useful framework to face the challenge of the increasing redundancy of worship places. © 2019 The Authors. Published by IEREK press. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).