Any Legacy for Winter Olympics? The Inheritable Resilience of Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956

Cortina d’Ampezzo, that hosted the VII Winter Olympics in 1956 and will host the XXV in 2026, is an exceptional case-study because it changed without contradicting its local identity and skipping the typical setback of the abandonment left behind after the Games, when many of these signs of modernity are, paradoxically, immediately out-dated or lacking function. Starting from the analysis of the urban and environmental condition of the region, the paper considers the experience of the VII Olympic Games by investigating the main characters of its genesis. At the center of the investigation is the role played by the landscape in the Modern architectural response, which contributed to outline a strategy based on the binomials tradition/experimentation and permanence/temporariness. The path that transformed Cortina into a modern international ski resort was accomplished with an unitary strategic project carried out through three main steps: the reuse of existing buildings; the insertion of context-sensitive architectures; the temporariness for functions with limited time demand. The paper investigates the lesson of 1956 about the effectiveness of reusing existing architectures and the foresight of designing temporary structures: it was a transformation of the places that did not erase their features and safeguarded the landscape, without leaving the principles of Modern architecture and experimentation. A Modernity ready to disappear and to choose the reversibility as a strategy to build a new landscape. Cortina 1956 leaves us an intangible heritage: an idea of fully Modern transformation that respects the fragilities of the landscape.