This study analyzes three project process for the reconstruction of urban areas destroyed by natural disaster or armed conflict: the village of Gondo in Switzerland, partially destroyed by a landslide, has been refurbished following an architectural competition; the city of Gibellina in Sicily, devastated by an earthquake, was rebuilt on another site by the Italian state; the Palestinian camp of Nahr el-Bared camp in Lebanon destroyed by the Lebanese army, is about to be rebuilt on the basis of a plan developed with the participation of residents. It appears that if the "users" are not active in the planning process it is likely to be inappropriate to their needs and therefore be rejected. Further more, it can be noticed that planners rarely have the means and knowledge necessary for such collaboration. This paper describes the nature of cultural reconstruction project by supporting that it must consider the relationship that people have with the place to rebuild. It addresses two major aspects of this relationship: memory and risk management. The first correspond to the need for commemoration and refers to the place as an identity component of the community. The second requires that we consider the risk as a social construction. We can then integrate risk management, taking into account the cultural dimension, in the reconstruction project to improve the resilience of the community. This research lead to the idea that these aspects can be incorporated into the planning process by using a mind map, that is to say a redrawing on the basis of memory of the place as it was before the disaster. This tool can allow the coproduction of the reconstruction project.