Scienza del progetto, della costruzione e della natura sulle orme di Plinio per il sostentamento della Campania Felix – Un percorso di indagine

This article introduces a series of contributions to the Journal of Plinian Studies written by the Science of Design and Science of Construction groups of the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design of the University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", concerning the interdisciplinary research of a sustainability μέτρον for design and construction in the territories of Campania Felix. The research which is herein proposed proceeds from the formulation of a case study for the regeneration of the built environment in the territories of the Volturno plain intercepted by the ancient route of the Via Antica Consolare Campana, located in the hinterland of the Phlegraean area connecting the ancient Capua to Misenum. A solution inspired by the work of Pliny is proposed in terms of the investigation of a recoverable balance between man and nature, examined here as equal sustenance of the construction chain and of biodiversity thresholds. In the pages of this cycle of contributions we will attempt to systematically explore a first best available hypothesis of a ecosystem/construction metric for a project calculation, calibrated upon the examination of the quantity of wood necessary for a hypothetical distant future reconstruction of the roof structures of the great hall of the Monastery of San Lorenzo ad Septimum in Aversa, located on the ancient route of the Via Consolare, and on the consequent examination of the amount of forest resources in Campania to be prepared for a preliminary complete ecosystem regeneration providing ontological sustenance, even before material sustenance, to this reconstructive hypothesis. In particular, the present introductive contribution discusses how such ‘dual-sustenance’ research leads to the rediscovery of the work and of the archetypal value of Pliny the Elder, taking up the exhortation of a famous book by Edoardo Benvenuto to formulate and solve concrete scientific problems of design and construction by recovering the necessary interdisciplinary conjunction between physical sciences and human sciences.