DOCTORAL PROGRAM in PRESERVATION of ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE Phd Yearbook | 2009 Phd Yearbook
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464 DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN PRESERVATION OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE PhD Yearbook | 2009 PhD Yearbook 465 Interventions on the built environment and more generally Coursework Chair: on buildings of the past, including the recent past, and their The PhD is intended to offer a broad range of Prof. Alberto Grimoldi management call for fine-tuned knowledge and organization courses which combine theory and practice to skills in all the related areas, from planning to maintenance. In stimulate advances in multidisciplinary research, Italy, even today, these activities are frequently dealt with – by a necessity in the field of conservation and public authorities and private individuals alike – in inappropriate maintenance of historic buildings. or inadequate ways, considering the present state of know-how, The basic teaching program is organized with historic and archaeological discoveries, sophisticated surveying and seminars held by Italian and foreign lecturers who diagnostic techniques, and recent studies on the materials and introduce the most advanced research methods structures of old buildings. There are now glaring gaps between and results in four major disciplinary fields: anamnesis and analysis even disregarding the results of equivalent ∙ History and theory of conservation and procedures in other parts of Europe. restoration is approached as part of the history The PhD course sets out to mould operators who will make a of culture, but also of society and institutions, significant impact on the practices of conserving, maintaining and within the often ambiguous relationships managing our built heritage. To this end special, separate attention 1. Wooden Structures is paid on one hand to older and historic buildings and structures, on the other to “modern and contemporary” architecture, in both cases between perfecting specific technical expertise PRESERVATION OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION in constant contact with developments in studies elsewhere in Europe. and “Verwaltung der Geschichte”. ∙ Material history of buildings explores the issues Teaching aims of recognizing buildings as a historic source, Knowledge is an essential step towards protecting and preserving, interpreting how events unfolded at building especially for conservation of the built environment. Only through sites and how production was organized, and awareness can we understand – and above all, make others showing how construction techniques of the understand – what could be lost: “you don’t lose what you are past evolved thanks to the technical know-how unaware of or uninterested in owning”. A building or structure of architects and builders, on one hand, and cannot be explained with instruments alone, even with the the methods of archaeological stratigraphy, also technical instruments of architecture: its documentary dimension in elevation, on the other. In parallel students lies in its material solidity, its meaning in society, the one it has had conduct workshop analyses and learn to and the one it is conserved for. There is much more to a building interpret their findings. than architecture. ∙ Historical research methodology addresses its Familiarity with the built environment is necessarily aided by subject on a more general level: the history and historical research, “stories of days gone by” and every other kind 2. Arena di Verona of useful contribution as well as, obviously by experimental science. Conservation of built environment founds on transversality of knowledge, on people able to catch the questions witch can be geography of documentary sources, the history of institutions solved with contribution of different discipline. which with their activities have changed the landscape and As far as knowledge and intervention on the built heritage are erected and used the buildings; in this respect its scope goes concerned, the “human sciences” and historic disciplines are beyond the traditional 19th-century perception of history of indissolubly linked with the relevant applied sciences. For there can architecture as a branch of history of art. be no “truthful”, exhaustive diagnosis of old buildings that fails ∙ Consolidation of structures and materials deals with analytical to consider the dimension of time, and the reconstruction of past and experimental methods for testing the efficiency of structures, usages and transformations. including those at particular risk. It includes study and calibration 466 PhD Yearbook | 2009 PhD Yearbook 467 of non-destructive investigative techniques for structural diagnosis, – starting from the Ministry for as well as theoretical and experimental study of appropriate Cultural Heritage, in its central non-invasive techniques, amongst them compliance with safety and regional offices – and with standards for buildings in seismic zones. organizations operating across the country in the sector of conservation Research organization and topics and restoration. Within this One of the distinctive features of the PhD course is that it explores framework several bodies have issues as yet seldom addressed in the sector of conservation, as financed scholarships. a means of developing new contributions to scientific output. Graduates of the PhD program Particularly worth mentioning among the subjects identified in have often found employment at recent years and currently being researched are the heating and progressively higher levels in public- plumbing systems of historic buildings, “building physics” (already sector conservation institutions as studied in Germany and France) and the consequent documenting well as in professional practice and of innovative installations in old buildings with the parallel study in the business world, in specific of old installations in individual buildings and at urban level. This is specialized fields. one of the most original and promising subjects of contemporary historic research, and it also highlights the environmental dimension 3. Analysis and Diagnostic Evaluation Building PRESERVATION OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION of conservation. Particular attention is focused on wooden structures (Fig. 1), considering the different structural types and finishes, and the material and its state of preservation. While extensive studies on this sector have been conducted in the rest of Europe, literature in Italy is scant, limited to precise geographical areas and frequently of Doctoral PROGRAM Board debatable content. Experimental and workshop activities about famous buildings Alberto Grimoldi Paolo Carpeggiani Pietro Marani (Arena di Verona – Fig. 2, S. Andrea a Mantova) are in progress in Giovanna Alessandrini Claudio Chesi Serena Pesenti the DiAP, Laboratory of Analysis and Diagnostic Evaluation Building Anna Anzani Carolina Di Biase Elide Antonella Saisi (Fig. 3), DIS, and CNR G. Bozza, Department of Chemistry and other university centres mostly in Lombardy, in order to analyze historic Amedeo Bellini Paolo M. Farina Cristina Tedeschi building materials and their deterioration. Innovative studies are Luigia Binda Marica Forni Gian Paolo Treccani being conducted in this sector, thanks to new research tools: the Maurizio Boriani Lorenzo Jurina particular subjects of interest are historic mortars (the earth-based mortars used in Italy and in Arab countries, though know-how, practices and conditions are not comparable), and use of oxalate film to protect stone. The objective is to find out how they were produced in the past, something little is yet known about, and current possibilities for re-introducing their use. Other more orthodox subjects of research and specialized teaching are the economic aspects of conservation, legislation to cultural heritage, landscape conservation, history and conservation of historic gardens, museology and museography. The PhD program fosters contacts with government institutions 468 ARCHITECTURE AND THE FIGURATIVE ARTS IN POST-SECOND WORLD WAR BUILDING IN THE MILAN AREA PhD Yearbook | 2009 PhD Yearbook Samanta Braga 469 This research sets in the field the subsequently unsuccessful of fervent debates concerning of modern architecture and attempt to have Rationalism the issues of reconstruction and analyses post-Second World War recognised as the “Fascist the most innovative planning building production in Milan style”, its architecture was initiatives (QT8), promotions in terms of the relationship characterised by an austerity of Italian and foreign avant between architecture and the that essentially excluded the garde architectural and artistic “other” arts. artistic component, some movements (the Triennali, It is a subject that was widely exponents of the Movimento art galleries and public debated throughout Europe Italiano per l’Architettura competitions), and a series of at the end of the nineteenth Razionale (MIAR, the Italian publications on art, architecture century, and was subsequently Movement for Rational and town planning. The city increased by some of the Architecture) showed interest also saw the development of avant garde movements of in the expressive possibilities industrial design, which brought 1. Front view of the apartment 1. Balcony’s view of the apartment 1. Entrance hall’s view of the the twentieth century (such offered by abstract art, as can be together the worlds of design building in viale Gorizia (Milan), 1950. building in via Lanzone (Milan), 1949- apartment building in corso Sempione Architect Marco Zanuso, artist Gianni ‘51. Architect Vito Latis, artist Lucio (Milan), 1953-‘56. Architect Piero as Futurism), which supported