La cura del dettaglio per la difesa dall'acqua. Il caso di Farsnworth House

The paper concerns the iconic case of Farnsworth House (Illinois, 1945-1951) by Mies van der Rohe, built on the Fox river alluvial plain. Mies made the seasonal flooding an element of the project by designing the building as a stilt house. However, the current intensity and frequency of flooding events are increasing, thus endangering the monument. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, through the Flood Mitigation Project (started in 2014), is devising a strategy in order to secure the building. The Organisation had explored some options and finally preferred an experimental hydraulic lifting system. The research aims to document the phenomena of damage caused by water, by examining the past interventions and the proposals of strategies for flood protection. How can we respect the spirit of the project, in the multiplicity of possible technical/technological solutions? The purpose of the paper is to analyse the effects of these choices on the building, starting from the belief that a multifaceted conservation project cannot be solved only on a technical level, but it must represent a cultural path.