ABSTRACT

Despite the recognized cultural value of historic "widespread" architecture, there are many factors that threaten their conservation. Historic buildings were built according to ways of living and producing no longer belonging to the present life: while this means that they are among the most important tools for keeping alive the traditions and identity of a community, it also makes them at least partly inadequate to meet the needs of users. Therefore, the desire to meet present (environmental, functional, etc.) needs could push to adapt existing buildings to contemporary standards. Owner’s lack of recognition of the historical value of these buildings means that he/she fails to appreciate the surplus value that they have compared to a contemporary building; very often engineers and architects themselves don’t have the culture to understand the value of these goods neither the expertise to intervene with minimally invasive techniques and frequently they are interested to leave a strong sign of their work, overwhelming cultural values and using them as a pretext for a new formal expression. On the contrary the full recognition of the surplus value of these buildings would encourage users to accept a level of performance below that required to a new building. Although we believe that measures which make the building reach at least the minimum level of performance required (especially regarding security) are necessary, we can't accept any type of intervention, but rather we should require that it minimizes material losses and take advantage of the limits that are placed to the possibility of modify the existing building.

Parole chiave/Key-words: Widespread architectural heritage, Reuse, Traditional architecture, Risks of conservation, Social conflict.