Ri-usare per conservare e per conoscere

The theme of the reuse of buildings has become nowadays a particularly significant aspect for the destiny of the built heritage, evident in particular in disused buildings or in the abandoned areas of urban suburbs. The possibility of reuse requires adaptations to contemporary life (environmental comfort, safety, accessibility, etc.): those adaptions are the fundamental conditions for giving a new life to the abandoned or disused buildings, with functional destinations and uses which are also expression of the multiple ways of living and thinking of today's globalized society, where changes take place faster and faster. In an ever-changing context, the complexity of the architectural designt, the inter and intradisciplinary components required by the conservation, the essential adaptations for contemporary life (air-conditioning, plant engineering, etc.), and, not least, the cultural significance of restoration designt (as an expression of the relationships between time, matter, memory) cannot be ignored. The project of adaptive reuse of abandoned buildings exposes to the risk of reducing its task to the mere solution of technical problems, confusing its means with its aims, which must be oriented not only to preserve the 'material' value of the building, but also to preserve its multiple immaterial testimonies.