This paper investigates the representation of urban stratification through a novel interpretative and digital framework applied to the city of Catania. The research conceptualizes the city as an interlocking system of “drums,” where successive historical, geological, and urban layers coexist and interact across time and space. Due to the influence of Mount Etna, Catania presents an exceptional case of accelerated and inverted stratification processes, where volcanic events disrupt conventional chronological layering (pp. 687–688).
The methodology combines historical cartography, geological surveys, and digital modeling to reconstruct the city’s layers without relying on hypothetical reconstructions, focusing exclusively on existing and detectable fragments. These layers—including the sedimentary basement, successive lava flows, and urban transformations from Greek to modern periods—are modeled as discrete elements and assembled into a three-dimensional system (pp. 690–696). As shown in the VR workflow (pp. 697–699), the research further develops an interactive virtual reality experience in which users can dynamically reconstruct the city by stacking these layers, enabling a perceptual understanding of the relationships between past and present. The results demonstrate that immersive and parametric representation tools can redefine the visualization of urban form, shifting from a static surface-based approach to a process-based understanding of spatial and temporal complexity.