Neighbourhood: A Threatened Heritage in Contemporary Europe

Europe is currently experiencing an identity crisis. The defence mechanisms of the material heritage are presently insufficient to safeguard the significant European intangible heritage: people and their citizen relations gradually conquered throughout history, based on values ​​of proximity, tolerance and multiculturalism; in brief, on the basis of the "neighbourhood" exercise, a concept intrinsically linked to the idea of ​​Europe. What social heritage should be safeguarded against such phenomena as “ghettoization”, “gentrification” and “touristification” in European cities? This article focus on four neighbourhoods designed by Alvaro Siza, in Venice, The Hague, Berlin and Porto, but above all on their exhibition at the XV Venice Architecture Biennale, in 2016, and concomitant analysis, seeking to rediscover these places where a Europe of many identities still resides and is made up of multiple neighbours.