On the search of human willfulness that had driven the making of a city in history: Morella

This contribution has to do with the powers that had driven the making of a city, in a socio-physical and space-time structural chronotopic manner, following ideas by M.Bakhtin (Bakhtin 1982), P. Ricoeur (Ricoeur 2003), and GIRAS Research Group (Muntañola 2016; Saura 963 1997). The main case study is the historic core of Morella, in Spain, and is focused upon the analysis of the relationships between: the configurative knowledge that is embedded in the urban form, the voices of their inhabitants considered as users, and the contemporary urban design practice of the architects and town planners Enric Miralles and Helio Pin~o´n. The method to study the transformations of the city is based on two different perspectives, the first based on the Italian school of urban morphology and typology (Strappa 2003) , the second on space syntax, developed particularly in University College London by Bill Hillier (Hillier 1996). Space syntax analysis will be used to analyse the urban fabric in relation to its connectivity and integration, while urban morphology studies will examine how the settlement has grown and been adapted to continue suiting the living. Then, direct observation and interviews with local residents provide insight into their daily lives and will also address how they have appropriated space to suit their needs. This analysis of the historical footprints (physical and cognitive) will allow defining the territorial heritage and the basis of a historical-structural approach to architectural design, which takes into account the characteristics of the place, its invariants and its rules of reproduction.Postprint (published version