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.
