Matera: city of nature, city of culture, city of regeneration. Towards a landscape-based and culture-based urban circular economy

Each city is a living organism with its own dynamics. Cities, as complex dynamic and adaptive
systems, are able of self-organization/self-management. There are many causes of the decline of cities
today (poverty, unemployment, etc.) that interdepend on the others in continuous retroactive processes.
The general proposal of this paper refers to a key word: “regeneration” as revitalization of the activities in
the perspective of the circular economy/city. The aim is to explore how an urban circular economy can be
implemented through a cultural landscape-based approach, analyzing the case study of Matera (Italy) and
assuming the interdependence between a specific landscape and the circular economy/city models. The
aim is to understand how to transform a millennial experience of underdevelopment into a dynamic
development perspective.