L'architettura delle città - The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni
The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni
The Dolomite mountain range was the scene of many battles during the First World War. Many young soldiers lost their lives fighting on both fronts. Several memorials were built in their commemoration, whose shapes present interesting design aspects related to the concept of remembrance.
L'Architettura delle città-The Journal of Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni
Postille sulla fortuna settecentesca di Bernini
As a key figure in the artistic development of Rome during the Baroque age, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) radically renewed the architecture of his time. His cultural circle – headed after his death by his pupil Carlo Fontana (1638–1714) – continued his research between the end of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century, improving the master’s design achievements by experimenting with new solutions based on his masterpieces. Among these, the Roman church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale had great resonance, as certified by some unpublished surveys of its façade that are now part of the Lanciani Collection kept at the National Institute of Archaeology and Art History in Rome. The aim of this paper is to reflect on Bernini’s fortune in light of these discoveries.
Ripensare la funzionalità della liturgia: un prototipo di chiesa del pittore Francesco Incarnatini
The well-known manuscript Vat.lat.11257.pt.A, which is kept in the Vatican Library, contains a plan drawing of a single-nave church with side chapels that was drawn up by Francesco Incarnatini. He was a Roman painter active at the Savoy court. This paper aims to investigate the implications of this drawing.
La cappella di S. Paolo in S. Carlo ai Catinari: i Cavallerini e l’ingaggio di Mauro Fontana
This paper, which is part of broader research, aims to clarify the dynamics that led the first chapel on the left side of the church of Santi Carlo e Biagio ai Catinari to obtain the ingenious design and the sumptuous marble coating of Mauro Fontana (1701-1767). The patrons of the chapel, the Cavallerini family, were strictly bound in the iconographic program by the dedication of the altar to St. Paul. The altarpiece, which was transported from the old church of San Biagio, has been relocated several times within the new temple. Finally, it replaced the title of the ‘Beata Vergine’. By comparing two manuscripts by the Barnabite Father Francesco Valle on the state of the church in the mid-18th century, along with the documents in the appendix, the text analyses the macrophases and architecture of the chapel, on which Fontana would later insert the rich altar.
The Aventine Hill, located at the southern limit of the ancient urban fabric of Rome, close to the left bank of the Tiber, stands out both in the history and landscape of the city for its eminent position dominating the river and for its leafy character, that still survives today, despite an intense twentieth-century edification. Although having housed a populous neighborhood in Roman times, close to the port and merchant infrastructure, the Aventine Hill remained almost empty for a long period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the early twentieth century. A series of ancient plans and views testify to this image of the hill, based on an intimate relationship with the Tiber and the large vineyards and gardens, marked with ruins of the Roman era, among which only the great ecclesiastical complexes of Santa Sabina stood out, of Saint Alexios, of Saint Prisca, and of the Priory of Malta, surrounded by lush vegetation facing the water. This paper briefly traces the historical-urban events of the hill using the graphic sources (engravings and paintings), focusing on the large conventual complexes that dominate the top of the hill, called «Aventinus Maior».
Copyright (c) 2025 L'architettura delle città - The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni
Renaissance Synthesis: an architectural and landscape evaluation of Villa Medici’s harmonious design
The most delicate melt of art, nature, and architecture found in the Renaissance period is best embodied in the Villa Medici atop Pincian Hill in Rome. Indeed, the famous gardens and panoramic aspects of the villa are imbued with ideals of beauty, order, and harmony that characterize the values of this period. The paper aims to critically evaluate the landscape value of Villa Medici through detailed analysis of the careful design strategy adopted for its gardens and contextual environment. A villa with progressive terrace morphology, classical statuary, fountains, and lush greenery makes Villa Medici as a sculpted landscape where built and natural worlds come into harmony. Such elements are strategically spatially organized and aesthetically orchestrated in a distilled renaissance struggle for the ordered and sublime. The weight of Villa Medici as a seminal work of Landscape Architecture is given by this study through a close consideration of spatial composition, visual axes, and scenic perspectives wherein the synthesis of art and nature coalesces into an expression of timeless beauty.
The space of communal power in 13th-century central Italy
Buildings used as seats for the representatives of local communities in the Middle Ages were (and often continue to be) a key element of the urban landscape as well as of cities’ identity. The phenomenon mainly involved central-northern Italy. The analysis of mediaeval municipalities necessitates an investigation of the relationship between public space and municipal buildings. The historiography has primarily focused on the north of Italy, where there is a strong communal presence. Numerous studies conducted in the Lombardy region and intriguing publications released in Tuscany serve as a foundation for historical-architectural analyses of communal buildings. There is a lack of research on municipal palaces in central Italy. In this historiographical context, it’s intriguing to investigate the territorial declinations of these and their relationship with the urban context. The palaces, built since the late 11th century, delineate the skyline of the city, occupying a prominent position. In this paper, I aim to analyse three different case studies in Umbria and Latium: Bevagna, Assisi, and Priverno.
Rome’s complex stratification continually offers surprises and prompts new reflections. This volume fully embraces that critical fascination, providing stimulating insights and even previously unexplored scientific perspectives through a miscellaneous collection of autonomous studies, all linked to a common subject examined across different historical moments. With this spirit in mind, the editors of this collective issue—Iacopo Benincampi and Emanuele Gambuti, respectively a researcher and a research fellow working within the Project of Excellence awarded to the Department of History, Drawing and Restoration of Architecture at Sapienza University of Rome—have shaped the present volume of the series L’architettura delle Città. The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni. The volume gathers Italian and international contributions connected by a shared intention: to foster reflection on the urban landscape of Rome and, by extension, of the Italian context. The collection stands as the outcome of a research project aimed at organizing a set of focused analyses which—supported by archival evidence and wide-ranging comparisons—allow for a broader understanding of social dynamics and contextual motivations that shaped certain architectural choices, as well as various changes made along the way.
The Sanctuary of Hercules Victor. A renewed image in the Tiburtina landscape
The paper explores how ordinary green maintenance in an archaeological site can contribute to an overall reinterpretation of the architectural artifact itself using as a case-study the management experience of the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor, Tivoli. The complex, located in a scenically significant position, boasts a two-thousand-year reuse that has allowed it to be preserved up to the present day. Starting from the “Progetto Strategico – Grandi Progetti Beni Culturali”, the preliminary cleaning operations of the greenery of the northern front have provided a renewed vision, particularly from the other ridge of the Aniene river, enabling us to draw a parallel with the contemporary structures of the Canevari Canal. Ancient and contemporary features are confronted again as part of an overall reinterpretation of the landscape. Keywords: Sanctuary of Hercules Victor, Tivoli, Cultural landscape, Historical palimpsest
The Italian urban landscape tradition. Sapienza University Campus and the shape of the green
Between 1932 and 1935, Marcello Piacentini (1881-1960) was in charge of coordinating the project of the new University Campus of Rome. The modern Studium Urbis would have grouped the colleges located in the city center, creating dedicated buildings, and reducing together people's pressure on historical neighborhoods. Such an opportunity affected the design, suggesting the architect imagine an autonomous citadel inspired by American and European successful experiments: particularly, the campus of Madrid and the University of Virginia. Each building was entrusted to a professional. Piacentini managed the construction of the Rectorate, assigning the surrounding faculties and the access propylaea to his trusted studio collaborators to guarantee uniformity. In addition, Piacentini developed Sapienza’s master plan by referring to the Renaissance tradition, proposing a rigorous layout dominated by voids and greenery. He adopted a basilica plan, proportioning the transversal axis using the width of Piazza Navona as a model, and manipulated the orography to align the monumental university gate with the ground floor of the Rectorate. Finally, he took advantage of the expressive properties of the perspective methods, using both the trees and traditional visual devices to generate a controlled, linear, and monumental urban space. Keywords: Rome, Sapienza, Marcello Piacentini, cultural landscape, garden design
Landscape and Antiquity. Artists, scholars, and Travelers in the Roman Campagna (XVIII-XIX c.)
During the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth, the flow of foreign artists, scholars and, aristocrats enlivened the Italian and especially the Roman scene, the fulcrum of artistic, antiquarian, and archaeological interests. Focusing on the field of the ‘Campagna’ such different approaches emerge and some recurring elements, as well as innovative visions and singular sensibilities. Dissemination of publications and prints was decisive in the elaboration of the individual and collective experience, including depiction of antiquities as they appeared to the eyes of observers, and of the fantastic images recalling perceptions and emotions. Keywords: Rome, Grand Tour, architecture, restoration, Roman Campagna.
New porticoed streets for ancient Istanbul. Innovation and historicism in eighteenth-century Ottoman urban culture
This paper analyzes the emergence of new porticoed commercial arteries in the Ottoman capital starting from that of the Damad İbrahim Paşa complex. Precisely around 1720s, Istanbul became a laboratory for new architectural and urban ideas, thanks to both internal dynamics of the empire and to the intensification of the interactions with foreign cultures. More directly than ever, the architecture of the city started dialoguing with remote sources, exponentially enriching its formal and typological vocabulary. The present study tries to explore the background of this urban novelty with a fresh look, taking in consideration all the factors which rendered eighteenth-century Istanbul a unique crossroad of people, cultures, and ideas. Interactions with Western Europe, the conquest of new territories in the Aegean, and the possible role of the local Ottoman and pre-Ottoman references are thoroughly discussed to depict a complex a panorama which spans over seven decades, till the completion of the Mihrişah Valide Sultan Complex in 1801. Keywords: porticated arteries, Damad İbrahim Paşa Complex, colonnaded streets.
The Missions of San Antonio, Texas. Architecture as a holistic representation of the environment
This paper analyzes the development of San Antonio missions’ cultural landscape to address the dialectic relationship between urban models created for the New World, European ideologies, and the role and contributions of the Indigenous population. During the 18 century, the need to improve the Christianizing of the Americas, associated with the urge to defend the territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, prompted Franciscan missionaries to open new settlements in Texas. Five of these are still standing in the current metropolitan area of San Antonio. The region’ s marginal location and the site’ s strategic position favored the growth of such Franciscan Missions under the protection of the Spanish Crown. The territory, in itself fertile, was re-shaped through substantial infrastructural and technological innovations. A complex system of artificial canals allowed the development of agricultural fields – the ejidos, or common lands – characterized by high and regular productivity, being able to feed the Mission population. Furthermore, rancherías (i.e., ranch lands) were established and designed for gazing. The local native population, commonly known as Coahuiltecos, rapidly converted from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to begin farming. The construction of fortified villages was the core of these newly founded communities. They had the specific role of controlling the territory and shaping Indigenous people’ s customs to be integrated within the novo-Hispanic society. The Mission settlements originated utilizing specific layout principles, hybridizing European models, such as the ones of medieval abbeys and architectural and military treatises. These settlements embody one of the most successful examples of Franciscan utopia. Keywords: San Antonio, missions, acequias, novo-Hispanic society, cultural landscape.
Copyright (c) 2024 L'architettura delle città - The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni
The urban strategy of Pope Paul III. The conclusion of the Trident of Piazza del Popolo
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the transformation of Rome promoted by the Papal Government aimed not only to answer to the needs of a modern state but also to represent the Papacy as an absolute monarchy. The visit of Emperor Charles V in 1536 became the opportunity to improve urban connections and to build architectural complexes such as the Capitoline Hill. The importance of these places was highlighted by putting them at the head of new streets: Pope Paul III made the Capitol visible from Via del Corso, renovated in 1538 as a part of the Campo Marzio general urban plan. If Pope Leo X imagined two streets (Via del Corso and the new Via di Ripetta) leading into the square in front of Porta del Popolo, and Clement VII began the third axis, it was Paul III who should be properly considered as the inventor of the trident of Piazza del Popolo. On the other hand, the pope experimented with the employment of straight roads that organized the territory as symbols of power also in his residence in Caprarola, an effective laboratory of absolutism. Keywords: Rome, Pope Paul III, Emperor Charles V, the Trident, urban strategies.
Oriental Dreams. Reimagining Paradise in the Urban Context
The integration of gardens into the urban fabric of Muslim cities has a rich historical background, dating back to the early days of Islam and influenced by classical and Persian cultures that cherished the idea of incorporating gardens into urban designs. As a result, gardens became an inseparable aspect of Muslim cities, intricately woven into their urban structures. This architectural trend extended far beyond geographical boundaries, spanning vast regions of the Muslim empire from Arabia, Greater Syria, and North Africa to Spain, Iran, and India. Gardens held a profound and symbolic importance for Muslims, closely intertwined with their religious beliefs. The Quran, the sacred scripture of Islam, frequently referred to the concept of ‘gardens’, assuring followers of the prospect of dwelling in lush gardens in the realm of paradise. This heavenly vision inspired the creation of earthly gardens, providing a tangible way to experience and connect with the essence of paradise during mortal life. Islamic gardens emerged as a quintessential element of Muslim cities, embodying the values and aesthetics of Islamic culture. Beyond their visually stunning appearance, these gardens also served practical purposes, offering shelter from the sun, refreshing water features, and ample space for social gatherings. This article aims to explore the significance of gardens in Islam, delving into their embodiment of the promised paradise. It will trace the origins of these gardens, examine their diverse forms, analyze their spatial organization, and unravel their multifaceted functions within the landscapes of Muslim medinas. Keywords: Muslim cities, Islamic culture, Quran, urban grid, landscape design
Historical analysis of a Roman urban center. ‘Hispellum’ as a case study
The paper proposes a model of historical-architectural analysis of the urban center of Spello, Italy (Umbria). We intended to extrapolate from the plurality of data, that makes up today’s landscape, the first macro-phase that can still be traced and detected on an urban scale, the one relating to the Roman period (from III-II centuries B.C. to IV century A.D.), which contributed to modify the landscape by operating on the environmental and natural framework through the action of man. The stratigraphic methodology, typical of the archeological landscape, was therefore followed, according to which the landscape should be read as the product of history. Among the various architectures that shaped the landscape of the Roman age, the fortification and the city gates built around the second half of the first century B.C. have been brought to light. The same structures have been compared with similar models existing in Umbria and Italy, belonging to approximately the same period. The final aim is to understand the significance that the fortification would have had in the political construction of the Colony of Hispellum in ancient times. Keywords: Spello, cultural landscape, Antiquity, urban design, archeological surveys
The landcape aspects of the historic city
The increasing interest that in the last decades scholars have shown for the landscape, intended as a visual expression of the structure of a territorial area, has opened up promising perspectives for the cities’ studies, offering also new methodological keys for interpreting their building history. The landscape that unfolds in front of our eyes is the result of land transformations induced over time by human activities, except in rare areas that have remained intact in their state of nature. Towns – both large cities and smaller rural centers – are the manifestation of these transformations. As nodal components in functional terms and the organization of material structures, they have been decisive in the building processes of human habitats, according to their size, location, and vitality. They carried a significant weight about the network of material and immaterial relations that have innervated the territory, but also to its concrete image; so as to become more or less extensive characteristic elements of the landscape, places in which cultural values had been thickened up to becoming identity components of that places.
La Scuola di Roma e ‘L’Architettura delle città’
The title “Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni” of the journal appeared very intriguing to me. Because Quaroni (he was trained in an important Roman classical high school attended by all the children of the best and wealthy families of the best Roman bourgeoisie; he was also a schoolmate and friend of the writer Lidia Mazzoleni Storoni, translator of the famous Memorie di Adriano by Yourcenar), was essentially a “humanist”. Therefore, the adjective “scientific” refers to the humanistic-humanistic sciences and not to those of the so-called scientific disciplines. The humanistic root of Quaroni’s thought, and also, I would add, of doing, is repeatedly called into question by Lucio Barbera in several essays in this journal: starting with the surprise that Barbera (his pupil and later collaborator) experienced with regard to both the personal library of LQ rich in texts by classics and ancient and modern philosophers (the latter also published, and therefore read by him, in several European languages and beyond); and, obviously, the breadth of his knowledge of the international framework of the architecture of the time; and, finally, the classification criteria he adopted to order it and make it easy to consult (by the way: I discovered that those criteria were very similar to those I adopted (and kindly accepted and acquired) for my library which I donated to the Central Library of the Faculty of Valle Giulia). [...]
The Rehabilitation Proposal for Seied Golesorkh Street
Seied Golesorkh Street is one, the most recent, of the new “cut” streets, at least until 1977, in the historic city of Yazd. The text and images describe the urban redevelopment project of Seied Golesorkh street, an intervention aimed at designing the new road front, but, taking inspiration from the availability of new areas resulting from the demolition, it is committed to provide for new services
Un pensiero, una filosofia, un’idea per la città di Yazd |A thinking, a philosophy, an idea for the city of Yazd
In 1977, at the end of the elaboration of the Master Plan for the city of Yazd, I asked Ludovico Quaroni to write an introduction to the Plan, to be published in synthesis in a short pamphlet that was meant to present the aims and a selection of the most significant reports [details]. The pamphlet would then be sent to journals and people of culture particularly sensible to the issue of the roots and the identity of the sites in those years of unbridled economic boom of the country. We, those responsible for the Plan, were well aware that its realization was not within the means of the Municipality of Yazd, which possessed neither the financial consistency nor the planning and technical skills to draw up the indispensable Detailed Plans for the realization and supervision. The organized intervention of the State would have been necessary. We presented some concrete proposals in this regard, included in the estimates of the Plan. But we felt the need for the support of a specialized, informed, and qualified opinion; and authoritative. Actually, Farah Pahlavi, Shahbanou of Iran, that is the queen, was our hoped for interlocutor. To her, who had studied architecture in Paris and by vocation and cultural preparation protected the arts, was entrusted also a sort of supervision of the management of Iran’s cities and historical monuments. With Ludovico, therefore, we discussed thoroughly the orientation of the introduction to the Plan and decided on a title; on the base of the Quaroni wrote the essay that I myself translated into Persian. Unfortunately the original text. in Italian, has been lost. But there is still my translation in Farsi. To revive the memory of the thought expressed on that occasion by Ludovico Quaroni on the city, on the oriental city, and on the precious example represented by Yazd, I believed it appropriate then to re-translate from Persian to Italian Quaroni’s text! I hope the reader, despite the ordeals suffered by the original text in its long voyage, will still be able to recognize in it the thought of our maestro. And to enjoy an unexpected return (M. Kowsar).
Memoria e idee: il Piano di Yazd | Memory and Ideas: the Master Plan of Yazd
This contribute describes Ludovico Quaroni’s approach to Persian culture, his first visits to Persia and his first contacts with the academic environment of Tehran. Then, the text introduces the sequence of events which lead to the elaboration of the Yazd Masterplan by the “Design Atelier” of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Tehran, established in 1962, and lead by Mehdi Kowsar, dean of the Faculty of Tehran, who involved Ludovico Quaroni for some consultancy and advisorship activities.
Editoriale | Editorial: Di città in città | From City to City
The glimmers of the Mediterranean. That time, returning from Tehran, we decided to take a Pan Am flight that allowed us, at no extra cost, a two-day stopover in Istanbul before taking off again for Rome. The weather over Anatolian Turkey must have been really bad if the jumbo, upon leaving Tehran, was diverted over the Mediterranean, which it had just reached, after an hour’s flight, at a stretch of the coast between Antioch and Laodicea, between Turkey and Syria. When we had been told of the deviation, Quaroni wanted to change seats and went to sit next to the window. The large Pan Am was certainly not full. We were off-season; in fact we, were enjoying our “low season” tourism offer. The hostess brought us, unsolicited, a bottle of Shiraz wine, Persian, and two fine glass chalices; the captain began to inform us, from time to time, on the flight route, as for making amends for the deviation that lengthened the flight and not by a little. The city of Antioch to our right, he informed us. Too late. We managed, however, to catch a glimpse of Cyprus – yes, Cyprus – to our left. Ludovico – so he told me – hoped to see the islands and the ragged coast after Rhodes; “beautiful islands, even more beautiful, the coast” he exclaimed. He was from the generation for whom that group of islands scattered between Crete, Cyclades, and Samos – the Dodecanese islands – for thirty years had been an Italian asset, especially dear for some architects who had been his teachers at the faculty; historians and planners. He remained fixed at the window while the names announced by the captain – Antioch, Laodicea, and Cyprus – and the first glass of Shiraz warmed our conversation. We were coming from Persia, we had met in Tehran: now we were flying over the Greek sea, over its ancient cities, over Aphrodite’s island – Aphrodite’s ... worth a toast, Ludovico! – and we were headed towards Constantinople on the last leg of our trip to Rome. We were crossing in its entirety the space of the ancient world, that space where, at that time, by pure chance we would meet from time to time as we moved, each on his own task, among its cities of greatest fate and the most beautiful. The thoughts of that world had soared with us; with us always. Of that world we used to reason between us each time we happened to pass an evening alone together or with our refined Iranian hosts, strolling aimlessly along walks under the monumental sycamores of Tehran or sitting in the garden of an old hotel in the countryside enjoying Iranian vodka under the very bright sky of Fars, on the border of the desert. Even when we had not met for months our conversation picked up as if it had never been interrupted. “Here” Ludovico turned to me one of those evenings, after a moment of silence, “when my wife, Gabriella, asks me what we talk about so much, you and I, when we meet here in Persia, I answer, we converse... comparing... the departed seasons, and the present and alive, and the sound of her.” He chuckled in his beard at his irreverent use of the words of the great Giacomo [Leopardi]. But it was true. In those conversations swaying between antiquity and our time, between history and that instant of our lives that witnessed our being thrust into another time, only the way we dressed reminded us we were from a future that in our hearts did not hope for those places. And we conversed with our Persian friends like travelers outside of time, really comparing the cities of our many modernities, dead or dying, to the antiquity here and alive of present Persia. It was in these conversations that I understood how much in Ludovico the vision of the future city was bound to the transfiguration of the ancient city, as if to finally design a new world worthy of the great past of our history it would be necessary to erase and forget all the models of modernity experimented in the West and imposed universally, stacking one over the other, in all their monumental, mechanical archaism; and failures. In him was ever present the cultural training of a generation of Italians that could not help but confront – even if only to refute – the original Futurism, that of Marinetti “the Egyptian” who sought vital energy in the technology of the future and in the native strength – even brutish – of the past: to destroy the West.
形象的重构：浅析乔万尼·卡博纳拉批判式修复理论 - Giovanni Carbonara, La reintegrazione dell'immagine: problemi di restauro dei monumenti
乔万尼·卡博纳拉（Giovanni Carbonara）对国内研究修复理论的人而言还颇为陌生。作为一名意大利建筑修复的理论家，他的名字虽然不如博依多（C.Boito）、乔万诺尼（G. Giovannoni）、布兰迪（C. Brandi）这样耳熟能详，但毫无疑问是当代修复理论的代表人物。2019年我国出版的《建筑遗产保护学》一书开篇章节对这位学者的介绍不吝笔墨，足见其修复观点对于国内当前理论研究的借鉴意义。而囿于语言障碍，国内学者对这位理论家的贡献还知之甚少。 本文选取卡博纳拉的一部中篇代表作《形象的重构：古迹修复的问题（La reintegrazione dell’immagine: problemi di restauro dei monumenti）》进行解读。此书出版于1976年，正值西方国家后现代主义之风盛行之时，技术进步对文化的影响显现，传统与革新的交锋也波及到了修复领域。在这一时代背景下，卡博纳拉对于既有修复理论进行回顾、深化与扩充，尽管成书已近50年，但其思想放在今天，仍具有相当的启发性。
Le missioni francescane di San Antonio (Texas) quali comunità fortificate: dai modelli di riferimento rinascimentali ai restauri del primo Novecento
During the 18th century, five Franciscan missions were established in the current metropolitan area of San Antonio, Texas. These communities contributed to the conversion of native people, favoring the local strengthening of the Spanish authority. However, French and Indian raids led to the construction of defensive systems. The missions, therefore, became fortified settlements, protecting one of main crossroads of the New World. Such typological innovation was supported by the Papal Congregation of Propaganda Fide. The layout was wisely developed, adopting Spanish and Italian Renaissance treatises’ principles and models. Regular geometries and specific construction features characterized the design of walled enclosures, similar to the ones of the nearby Spanish presidios. In San Antonio missions, military architecture is intertwined with Christian symbolism in an emblematic syncretism between European traditions and local peculiarities. Once secularized, these settlements became rural communities, with the exception of Mission San Antonio, which was converted in the Alamo fort. The missions were rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century, and pivotal for the entire nation are their first conservation efforts starting from the 1920s. Keywords: Missioni di San Antonio (Texas), architettura, Settecento, restauro, Novecento.
Un essai de restauration critique en Tunisie Cas de la restauration du palais du baron d’Erlanger à Sidi Bou Saïd “Ennejma Ezzahra”
The Palace of Baron d’Erlanger in Sidi Bou Saïd in Tunisia received special attention during the nineties, and a daring restoration project was launched in 1992, this presentation will seek to present this pilot project to safeguard this illustrious building which could be taken as a model. We will insist on heritage recognition, the aspect of protection, the restoration project with its operational concepts such as conservation, critical intervention, innovation and enhancement. This project benefited from a series of favourable circumstances, a recognition of the heritage value, which is not always the case especially for the colonial heritage, a strong political will, a large and available budget, a young institution with flexible management, accompetent team with clear ideas, the carrying out of the necessary studies by specialist service providers and work by competent companies. This pilot project unfortunately remained a unique project and failed to convert into a strategy for the conservation and restoration of historic monuments in Tunisia, despite the measure which was taken within the framework of legislation and training, but the practice did not follow. keywords: Critical Restoration, Baron d’Erlanger Palace, Tunisian Colonial Heritage
Restauración del Palacio de Viana en Córdoba
Time has been the main architect at Viana Palace. Complexity is the result of a progressive adaptation to marquises of Viana’s vital needs and requirements. For over seven centuries, parts of a historical puzzle have been incorporated, modified, restructured and added, around twelve courtyards and a garden. In 1981 it was declared as Cultural Interest Heritage. The new restoration consisted in reversing structural pathologies detected in Patio de Recibo mezzanines, stables and on the roofs. Our project strategy solves those problems by combing traditional and contemporary constructive solutions, preserving the original atmosphere of the living house for the museum’s visitors. The aim after all was the same as in Tomaso di Lampedusa’s El Gatopardo “everything changes so that everything remains the same”. Doing what is not visible, that’s the idea in our Restoration of the Viana Palace. Key words: Restauration, Cordova, Viana Palace.
O presentismo na preservação de bens culturais no Brasil
This text addresses issues of restoration in Brazil today. To deal with this broad and complex theme, it is necessary to select some of the problems involved. In this article, the choice was to present some of the characteristics of preservation in Brazil to deepen a specific aspect: the tendency to disregard the theoretical contributions of restoration. In the last century, the vision about conservation in the country has shifted from a prevalent notion of heritage of exceptional value to the whole nation, to a more inclusive one, of heritage as bearer of reference to the identity and memory of the various groups that form the society. This process was accompanied by intense debates, with contributions coming from various fields of knowledge and different social groups, but the discussion on intervention criteria did not advance to the same extent. Therefore, the article will point out some of the characteristics of preservation in the country in order to discuss the tendency to discredit the theoretical principles of conservation and restoration, resulting in a prevalence of an exacerbated presentism. Key words: Cultural Heritage, Preservation, Theoretical Principles, Brazil.
“Stratificazioni” nello spazio antropico; per una dialettica tra storia e contemporaneità
If urban-territorial facts are complex in expressing the values of architecture and the environment, there is no doubt that their identification is the natural premise of any defense action, and it can certainly be said that design issues claim to pay special attention to the ways through which the dialectic between pre-existences is brought into being. The topic concerns the relationship between the architecture of the past and the architecture of the present; a theme that postulates a planning process capable of satisfying both the reasons of history and the needs of contemporaneity. The whole theme revolves around this dialectic; hence the need for a critical approach to be traced back to the propositional interests of the intervention. Key words: city, history, contemporaneity.
Sul progetto di restauro. Varietà di ‘atteggiamenti’
Predisporre un numero monografico interamente dedicato al restauro per la rivista “L’ADC. L’architettura delle città”, periodico che ha come obiettivo editoriale quello di approfondire attraverso studi architettonici, storici, tecnologici e urbanistici la valorizzazione delle città, ha rappresentato un’importante occasione per affrontare sia la complessità dell’ambito disciplinare, nella sua reale ‘attualità’, sia la contemporaneità degli strumenti progettuali finalizzati alla conservazione del patrimonio storico; si è voluto, infatti, dedicare un intero spazio ai modi d’intendere il restauro oggi, tra pensiero teorico e prassi operativa. L’iniziativa di curare un volume speciale sul restauro architettonico, che risale al periodo della pandemia Covid, è stata sollecitata da Lucio Valerio Barbera, direttore scientifico della rivista, e accolta con entusiasmo da uno dei membri del comitato scientifico, Giovanni Carbonara, sempre attento all’attualità e all’evoluzione della disciplina, venuto purtroppo a mancare il 1° febbraio del 2023. Al suo ricordo è dedicato questo numero di L’ADC. Nell’attualità, infatti, il panorama della cultura del restauro e lo scenario applicativo si presentano ancora più complessi che nei decenni trascorsi, viste le diverse articolazioni e connotazioni che lo riguardano: dal monumento alla città, dal paesaggio agli aspetti tecnici, dagli interessi economici a quelli sociali.
The group formed by the students who were the promoters of ASeA and the founders of AUA, was among the most active promoters of the first student occupation of the Faculty of Architecture in Rome after the initial post-war years: it occurred in 1956 and certainly today it would be considered a demonstration of a “corporate” nature. In that year, the elections for the formation of the Faculty Student Council composed of three members had been won by the list of the UGI – Unione Goliardica Romana – towards which the votes of the left-wing students had also been directed, after the direct agreement between Palmiro Togliatti and the very young Marco Pannella (elected president of the UGI in 1952). After the elections, Lucio Barbera, Massimo La Perna – both members of our group – and Claudio Tombini, representative of the students of the FGCI (Italian Communist Youth Federation) in the Faculty were elected to the Faculty Student Council. The demonstration, organized by the Student Council and which culminated with the occupation of the premises of the Faculty in Valle Giulia, involved all the other national university locations because it was aimed at contesting a national law (n. 1378, 8 December 1956) which, by reintroducing the State Exams for the practice of the profession, opened up to engineers the possibility of enrolling in the Order of Architects without allowing – in fact – reciprocity. The demonstration of a national nature did not achieve anything, but for the architecture students of Rome it was a training ground for collective action and an important experience of collaboration with students active in other Italian Faculties of Architecture. In those years in Italy the Faculties of Architecture were still those established between the two world wars at the Polytechnics of Milan and Turin, the Universities of Florence, Naples, Palermo and the IUAV of Venice, on the model of the Royal School of Architecture of Rome, founded by the group of designers and artists led by Gustavo Giovannoni and Marcello Piacentini. To give greater meaning to the demonstrations against the law establishing the State Exams, student representatives of all the other Faculties met in Rome where a joint conference was held; it was the occasion to establish political, cultural and personal relationships with peers and colleagues from other Italian cities with whom a generational network embryo was naturally formed that in the following years developed at every level with great naturalness. Despite the democratic courtesy with which this first occupation was conducted, Dean Vincenzo Fasolo assumed an authoritarian and paternalistically aggressive posture, which however allowed the rest of the Professors' Council (only seven full professors were part of it) not to expose themselves against the student initiative. That demonstration successfully involved a large part – the most active – of the students, both male and female – very few – of the Faculty and seemed to express a concrete leadership capacity of our group. By consciously adopting the usual and anthropologically tested model of climbing to hegemony – even if only cultural – through the identification of an adversary to beat – better if institutional and ideological – our group elected itself the main protagonist of the opposition to the cultural backwardness of the Faculty – evident especially in the years of the two-year preparatory course. We founded the ASeA (Students and Architects Association) and, within it, a Freshmen Information Center, with which we addressed especially the very young with a sort of real counter-school. During the hours of official teaching breaks, we organized supplementary lessons for the first-year students to introduce them to the principles, works and ideals of the Master of Modern Architecture of the years between the two World Wars, from which, in our opinion, it was necessary to start again to design the contemporary city. (...)
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