SET
OTT
2022
487 Italian Review. Restoration and Reuse
The knowledge and interventions on the built environment are a widely consolidated practice and represent an excellence of our country. The capillary diffusion of buildings with high historical, artistic and architectural value throughout the whole national territory has led to developing a centennial tradition in the field of restoration and reuse of buildings, creating multiple peculiar skills and know-how, which are often looked to in the whole world. The approach of combining historical-critical reading skills with innovative restoration techniques and design interpretation capacity allows preserving a wide number of buildings from different contexts and eras, bringing them to a new life at the same time. In the last years, this practice has extended to any kind of built heritage, to avoid demolition as much as possible and operate according to refunctionalization and rewriting principles, fitting in a wider conception of good and heritage, in a logic of circular economy. The interventions outlined in this issue are a partial selection of a much wider activity; however, they stand as an example of this approach, which requires teamwork, sensitivity and effort from all the involved actors: from clients to designers, from contractors to the workforce.