Forme antiche, nuovi materiali:

reintegrare con l’acciaio corten

Maria Grazia Ercolino

Dipartimento di Storia, Disegno e Restauro dell’Architettura, “La Sapienza”, Roma.

mariagrazia.ercolino@uniroma1.it

ABSTRACT

Restore an historic building requires caution, careful in choosing materials and great reflection on the attitude to keep. The result of each intervention on the historical heritage depends on the resolution of some issues: the size relationship between 'completion' and ruin, treatment of the layers and material compatibility. It’s the choices of materials to qualify the contemporary language of the project.

Among the projects that have been confronted in recent years with these issues, it was decided to select some whose common feature was that they had used, as matter prevalent, the corten steel. The selection includes projects which restore only missing parts and those that provide for the inclusion of new elements aimed to reuse.

Corten steel combines the steel’s qualities to the further characteristic of a surface appearance 'ever changing', which refers to the passage of time. An element capable of introducing a contemporary language in historic buildings and rebuilding ties with ancient materials. The particular features of the material, aesthetically valuable, requires a lots of technological and constructive safeguards, aspects should not be underestimated.

The analysis confirmed the corten’s great aesthetic and structural efficiency. Specifically its use helps to solve spatial and techniques issues respecting the historic materials. More problematic seem to be projects that use corten steel as a coating for new volumes added to the ruins of historic building’s.

Parole chiave/Key-words: Cor-Ten steel, conservation, restore, reuse, rusty patina.