Perspectives on Architectural Preservation. Essays 2010-2020

The volume collects essays and reflections written on my own or in collaboration with some colleagues and friends over the last ten years of work. The time span starting from the years of my PhD up to date has represented a moment of prosperous scientific production and constant personal and professional growth. The objective of this publication is to select some of the texts already disseminated in the last years and to republish them in English as an anthology of essays about the restoration and preservation of architectural heritage, which could hopefully have scientifically relevant repercussions at national and international level. The selected essays are grouped according to three different topics concerning, respectively, the study of alternative sources and the neglect architecture for a deeper comprehension of the heritage; international case studies that are helpful to understand the different shades of the concept of cultural heritage and memory; and the preservation of the archeological heritage, which has been my specific field of study in the last years. The choice of the English language is due to the precise will to launch a dialogue and a debate capable to open up to new and emerging preservation cultures and to different approaches to the discipline of restoration of the architectural heritage. In this respect, the publication will be available in open access and printed in few copies to be distributed in universities’ libraries for free, in order to achieve free circulation of knowledge, fully fledged and open dissemination of the results of the scientific research and a more ethical approach to culture

Accidental Destruction & Intentional Destruction. Considerations for archaeological sites and monuments

The research intends to investigate the link between accidental destruction due to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or spontaneous collapses, and intentional destruction operated by unfortunate conservation and restoration strategies. In order to conceptually embrace the buildings’ decay as inalienable, the essay aims at establishing a parallelism between what the nature has destroyed and the strategies to fix to such damage, and what has been modified or destructed, instead, by human work, often scarcely aware of the historical, value-driven and technological properties of the asset. The article will examine many archeological realities present in Asia Minor and attributable to the Roman or late Roman age, with the purpose to provide for operational examples of intervention and modification of the archeological context and to fulfill a parallelism that proposes itself as interesting critical reading of the intervention strategies

A Landscape Review. Inside Langhe between Protection and Literature

The essay suggests a double reading of the same region, the Langhe territory in Piedmont, Italy, and its landscape. This twofold review, on the one hand will apply the tools of protection, enhanced by the recent inclusion of the site in the World Heritage List, while, on the other hand, it will try to “read” the landscape through literary sources, neglected by UNESCO, still representative of the whole region. Through this operation, the paper aims to reflect on issues related to places’ authenticity and uniqueness, in order to improve the landscape comprehension and conservation

Industrial Heritage: reflections on the use compatibility of cultural sustainability and energy efficiency

AbstractToday the industrial heritage represents a great functional and cultural resource. In fact, analyzing the international situation about it, it's possible to identify features that meet the increasing demand for architectural and urban spaces intended to cultural and social needs.However the type of industrial complexes discharged suggests solutions regarding heir sustainability for what concerns the energy standards. At the same time the cultural sustainability demands the utmost respect to the architectural elements, the space, the materials and to the structures that have historically characterized the proto-industry. The contribution, through a specific set of examples, analyzes projects and proposes actions in which the intervention achieves both the respect to the compatibility of use and the requirements of cultural and energy sustainability

Thoughts about conservation and enhancement of archaeological heritage in France

French archaeological heritage of the classic age has been subjected, over the centuries, to phenomena that have caused either its abandonment or the continuation of its use, its transformation or the loss of its integrity. In particular, the sites for entertainment such as theatres, amphitheatres, circuses, stadiums and hippodromes are now often in ruins (as a result of either destructive events or the interruption of their use) after knowing seasons of transformation, conversion to new uses, repairing of damage of various kinds, restoration, adaptation to new stylistic canons: processes that have ensured the survival of these buildings through a continuous integration in urban activities. Today, these goods, mostly located in relevant urban contexts, are part of a landscape whose transformations guided by illusions aimed to make them attractive for tourists, are creating sharp separations between these monuments and the contest in which they are. Based on these premises, the paper presents the results of a research aimed the preservation of this heritage, suggesting strategies for its valorization that, in accordance with the requirements of the contemporary world, propose a project for tourist fruition which must be compatible with such goods that are architectural and parts of a landscape. In particular, the paper analyzes some interventions of enhancement on the archaeological heritage in comparison with those cases in which development strategies have proved compatible effects with the demands of conservation

Post-conflict conservation or reconstruction: analysis, criteria, values of the recent Syrian cultural heritage

Three years of conflict in Syria has affected the cultural heritage severely and threatened social and symbolic values. This paper illustrates firstly the real condition of the city of Aleppo, through presenting some cases of high cultural value buildings damaged by the conflict, even some were totally collapsed, which represent an important bond of Aleppo citizens similar to the idea of “Istanza Psicologica” theorized by Roberto Pane. Secondly, the research aims to analyze the criteria of “second-day” intervention (conservation, restoration, enhancement and eventual reconstruction) on this damaged heritage, by investigating the cultural significant values of these buildings damaged or completely destroyed. Finally, the paper concludes with a few suggestions about the optimum intervention of different case studies represents the values mentioned before. To sum up, the research aims to involve the international debate about conservation and restoration with a critical situation of cultural heritage in crisis

Le pellicole del Neorealismo come fonte documentaria per la conoscenza e valorizzazione dei contesti urbani e paesaggistici: il caso di Roma

The cinematography heritage belonging to Neorealism, for the first time in film history, represents a turning point in storytelling. In order to achieve this goal, in the decades after the Second World War, the directors chose to leave the studios, using as movie sets, the city neighborhoods, which best correspond to the needs of the narrative plot. From the foregoing, the essay aims to analyze few films (sets in Rome between the Forties and Sixties), in order to study the architectural heritage, which in the film plays the role of "real" set to the events. The research also purposes to investigate how these new interpretations and analyses can be useful to more proper conservation of the city suburbs heritage

Necropoli e ruderi funerari in Asia Minore. Dalle esplorazioni ottocentesche alla configurazione attuale del paesaggio archeologico

The roman necropolises of the Cilicia Trachea represent an interesting case study for the investigation of archaeological heritage and its transformation. Since the nineteenth century surveys, in fact, there is confirmations of how such systems of buildings have undergone profound changes, adapting to the needs of local populations. The article aims to analyze the contemporary status of these structures, in order to define how this transformation still pursues today. To confirm this theory the essay will be focused mainly on the Cilicia Trachea and Lycia necropolises, with particular mention to the northeastern necropolis of Elaiussa Sebaste. This reality will show different constructional and architectural types of funerary buildings, in order to achieve a more complete perception of the cultural and archaeological landscape of the area