UTOPIA CONFRONTS DYSTOPIA IN THE ACTUAL LANDSCAPE-CULTURAL MOSAIC

The old equation “public interest” = “praiseworthy”, “private interest” = “deplorable”, must be compared with the equation “public enterprise” = “waste”, “private enterprise” = “gain”. Both equations of course do not hold, but undoubtedly some truth can be found. In this framework the place of utopia and dystopia, keeping in mind all the three keywords, is not easily found, since the handy and appealing equation “utopia” = “public projects”, “dystopia” = “private projects” cannot be derived, especially if we consider also value. It seems rather that as far as the evolution of the landscape-cultural mosaic is concerned synergies and contrasts between public and private powers must be studied, analyzing also the potential transitions. It must be recalled that public interest for landscape is somehow a recent acquisition, since many important infrastructures were completed when attention was directed to the actual costs rather than to the prospective losses of value.