Contro il comune senso del decoro: interventi sulle superfici dell’edilizia storica e mutamenti fisici e di immagine

Facing the topic of architectural surfaces is somehow like looking inside a kaleidoscope, whose thousand facets are always opening new perspectives and different viewpoints, each one loaded with its prerogatives and issues.
Theoretically speaking, the subject spans between the idea of a “sacrifice surface” and the opposite one of “surface recording the change”, that is the matter is deeply rooted in a complex dualism, actually reflecting the changing nature of surfaces themselves and this fact has several repercussions both on the conceptual and on the operational level. Quite a similar, though a bit more prosaic duality presents itself within the customary operating practice, where renewal is still prevailing, despite either the material and the technical, as well as the cultural and aesthetical meanings of ancient surfaces have been widely acknowledged. And though each time complaints arise about the Disneyland-look looming over both the more important old towns, as well as over the minor centers.
Such a phenomenon is much more closely related to human-lead changes causing buildings the loss of their material authenticity, than to natural processes themselves. The paper aims at researching some of the main causes of such process hindering the preservation of architectural surfaces - above all plasters and exposed brickworks - which are due both to physical and technological and law factors, as well as to a wider cultural and aesthetical frame of reference.
An articulated series of examples shows how common and across-the-board the process is, mostly involving the non-listed buildings but which either the most monumental ones can hardly escape from, nor such World Heritage Sites as Venice are able to avoid the continuous physical and image changing it entails.
Referring to some recent experiences of research and operational guidelines has some useful observations about possible perspectives as a result, envisioning some recommended trends for eventual interventions, necessarily involving some topical reflections about the dialectic between durability-decay, preservation-transformation, continuity-renewal.