Editorial. Elevated Sites

Abstract

The editorial by Giovanna A. Massari introduces issue 15 of “XY”, devoted to mountains and to their past, present and future images. The mountain is presented as a natural reality, a symbolic place and an anthropological space: an identity-based, relational and historical environment shaped by life, work, tourism, sport, infrastructures, and social transformations. From this perspective, the journal opens a reflection on the role of representation in interpreting mountain territories. Maps, views, drawings, photographs, videos, diagrams and digital models become tools for reading existing conditions, revealing deeper hidden structures and giving shape to new design scenarios. Elevated sites thus emerge as a fragile and constantly evolving natural and cultural heritage, to be understood, protected and imagined through images capable of connecting past, present, and future.