Giancarlo De Carlo’s Urbino University Colleges: A conservation management plan for long-term maintenance and sustainable use of the complex

The “Conservation Plan” of the University Colleges of Urbino, currently being draft within the “Keeping it Modern” program of the Getty Foundation, aims at defining a long-run scenario and a comprehensive strategy of conservation, renovation, use and management. Within the plan, a specific tool (“Care Program”) is developed, which addresses the need for an effective planning of the preservation/maintenance activities, giving priority to fair-faced concrete(s) and wooden frames. The proposed tool takes root in the methodologies established within the studies on Preventive and Planned Conservation of heritage buildings: priority is given to risk assessments, “soft “actions, to limit/ postpone interventions and rules for a respectful use. In the research, the approach have been redefined considering the size of the complex, the actual uses and the specific features of 20th century materials and architectural elements, that was in large part experimental and used without taking into account their vulnerability.