Conservare la materia per preservare la memoria urbana : Le fragilità contemporanee della Trieste Liberty = Preserving material to safeguard urban memory : the contemporary fragilities of Art Nouveau in Trieste

Preserving Material to Safeguard Urban Memory The architecture inherited from the past embodies an intrinsic fragility. Human perception and the values we choose to preserve inevitably influence the conservation or loss of specific aspects of the built heritage. In Trieste, many buildings from the Liberty period have recently undergone controversial transformations. These changes are not the result of natural decay but rather human interventions that have ignored key principles of the contemporary restoration culture, prioritizing stylistic reconstruction and historical falsification over preserving the “patina of time”. This paper explores the fragility of these buildings as a value, advocating for the preservation of material as a tool to safeguard memory.