Limpide intenzioni di tutela e controverse pratiche di innovazione. Il caso delle facciate di un’opera moderna (1927) e d’autore (Alessandro Minali)

The paper deals with the total renovation of the Villino Colombo in Busto Arsizio (VA): a building from the early twentieth century, by the architect Alessandro Minali. Busto Arsizio is a populous city. During the Twenties it was affected by a significant industrial and therefore building development. The case study is the product of a bourgeois clientele that no longer exists today. Inherited from St. Michael’s Parish, after being rented for charitable purposes, it has been alienated. The sale resulted in listing the building for its historical value. A construction company purchased the Villino and restored it in 2018 in compliance with the constraints and indications of the master plan. This has made it possible to completely renovate the facades and review the layouts changing the relationship between rooms and orientation and therefore their natural ventilation. Above all, the estate’s subdivision into two lots splits the house from its garden, and it risks compromising the orientation criteria the designer followed. Throughout an in-depth exam of the original design of the building and its garden (1926-1928) versus their actual condition (2011) and comparing the ownership’s intentions and the guidelines for local protection (2011) and urban planning (2018), it is concluded how innovative it could be the design of a structure to produce clean energy also recalling the lost element (the pergola).