Roberto Guiducci, commenting the Regional Urban Plan published a few months before the earthquake, acknowledged an axis with industrial vocation and capacity of growth that stretched from Trieste to Gorizia, Udine, Pordenone, Sacile. He separated it from the weak Friuli, which included the mountains and the lowlands. According to a natural systole-diastole movement, the disadvantaged sections should have to emigrate to the heart of the development, dividing the region - roughly - between places of work and leisure. The idea that the earthquake had helped this process, emerged at the time of the request of prefabricated housing and led to the possible doubling in size of the city of Udine. The experience of Belice, where similar plans had been attempted through (necessarily) top-down criteria, contributed to downgrade the project.

The action of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Government in fact moved in the opposite direction, as it tried to rebuild the country "as before", in the effort to meet the expectations of the earthquake victims.

The Remo Cacitti's trial against "cultural and material eradication" met an undoubted success in the reconstruction of Venzone. His intellectual rigor, his network of relationships and his ability to lead a community favored the rebuilding of the original medieval village. Not all vilages could count on equally strong personalities and had to rely on more limited technical knowledge, especially in the field of historical values. The "rulers", many of which were inspired by the same values as Cacitti, tried to interpret the will of the people according to their own capabilities, and they did not abandon themselves to the "devastating fury" of the bulldozers as they stated.

From this point of view Emmanuel Chiavola's activitiy deserves special attention due to the technical ability with which he managed a completely new situation and his tenacity and courage with which he faced continuous, often unjust, disputes.

The Extraordinary General Secretariat for the reconstruction of Friuli was the decision-making center that disciplined the choices of local authorities. Chiavola worked out a few clear rules in order to control the division of regional funds to those who were entitled. The starting point of the study on the funding cases, was the identification of a "subject" (the applicant) and an "object" (the house). The applicant could be resident or non-resident, with or without family, homeowner or renter, with or without the intention to reside in the earthquake stricken Municipality. The house could be unharmed, entirely destroyed or damaged, partially destroyed and damaged. A specific work sheet corresponded to each one of these cases. The mayors had to sift through the documents to get the funds which were due to individuals.

The urban plan which governed individual choices a priori and oriented the reconstruction upon rigid principles, was therefore constantly set aside and replaced by a legislation aimed to guarantee everyone the right to decide according to their own preferences within certain spending limits.

Chiavola, a close associate of Comelli, believed that the future of the reconstruction belonged to the Friuli inhabitants and, as a technocratic leader, complied with the reformism of which he represented together with Comelli within the Christian Democrat party before the earthquake. He accompanied the process of rebirth without assuming to know and to impose final decisions. At the same time he refused all forms of anarchy and waste, analyzing the amount of each contribution and giving (flaunted) priority to the practical moment towards any ideological framework.

The complexity of the legal, technical and administrative instruments that the Regional machine had to prepare, emerged especially at the time when the real reconstruction process began. In 1979-1980 companies and professionals raised abnormally their prices due to the huge demand for operational activities . The Region reacted promptly promoting the "pooled procurement". The extraordinary regional Secretariat joined forces with the Central Liaison Office, a political body composed of one representative of the DC, one of PCI, one of PSI, one of the PRI and one of the Social Democrats. The Central Liaison Office was given the task of promoting the influx of big factories with advanced technologies and adequate labor force from outside Friuli. The operation slowed down the run-up on building, added consistency to the repair and rebuilding of houses, accelerated repair and renovation of housing.

« inizio pagina