Italian Interior Reuse. A Dialogue with the Past

Italian architecture has always been distinguished by the continuous work to which the need for change has subjected, and continues to subject, pre-existing buildings: extensions, reworkings, reuses, destructions, adaptations, and incorporations create an over stylistic continuity over time, merging different styles, modifying spatial distributions, and readjusting uses. The design intervention on this type of building is intended to update its spaces, eliminate superfetation, and propose new contemporary uses. For this type of intervention, the design of the interior space is crucial. The chapter traces the theoretical incipit on the value of the interior space as the essence of architecture by post-war Italian theorists (Bruno Zevi, Giulio Carlo Argan, Luigi Moretti) and mentions the creative contribution of recognised masters on pre-existing artefacts which from the post-war period onwards qualifies the Italian project on pre-existing buildings as ArchitetturadegliInterni [Architecture of Interiors]. It is an intervention that works on the pre-existing building, enhancing its qualities as an ‘interior’, with exciting proselytes in the present age. For this reason, the conclusion proposes to change the usual term of ‘Adaptive reuse’(Plevoetsand Van Cleempoel 2019, 19-20) for the project on the pre-existence into the more specific locution of ‘Interior reuse’: this is the most interesting field of intervention to re-actualise the past and propose it for today’s use.