The BBPR's Colonia Elioterapica of Legnano: a case study for a possible enhancement of modern heritage and its environment

The survey and the historical-bibliographical research about Colonia Elioterapica by BBPR (1938) were the input for a larger consideration about the problem of Modern preservation and enhancement. For first we were looking for some answers to the questions: why and how to preserve the building. The necessity of a preservation and enhancement become from the value of the building itself: from a point of view of his belonging to the Modern Movement and, on the other hand, its importance as a testimony of our Italian history. We can say that, immediately, we must put in place a safeguard action, conservation, promotion and management, in order to optimize resources able to guarantee the survival of the architectural heritage in the long term. But, how can we preserve and enhance this building, that we had recognise as Cultural Heritage? Here the necessity of a deeper point of view about this situation. It seems that the classic "museographic" solution cannot be able to represent the best choice for a building that ask for an enhancement able to purpose a new "critical" reuse, in the respect of his historical memory. The building itself ask for a new life, where the new function can be considered as an historical threshold, able to keep alive the memory of place. In the light of recent local policies for the urban regeneration (e.g. of the Ronchi parch/woodland) we paid attention to a new problem: the enhancement of the building itself, now considered as a part of a complex system who belonging the context in which it is inserted. Also in a view to understand actual national policies, e.g. the recently example of "urban regeneration" policy, the aim of the paper is to analyse the Colonia Elioterapica as an example of a larger discussion about a possible future for the enhancement of Modern Architecture in terms of management of Cultural Heritage.