The Modern between Conservation and Transformation.
Ten Years of Do.Co.Mo.Mo. Italia: Balance and Outlook
Trieste, 5th-8th December 2005

INTRODUCTION

Ten years since the establishment of the ‘Associazione Do.Co.Mo.Mo. Italia onlus’ the international conference, organized with the partnership of the new Friuli Venezia Giulia regional office, The Modern between Conservation and Transformation. Ten Years of Do.Co.Mo.Mo. Italia: Balance and Outlook has as its objective the analysis of the “state of the art” in regarding the various approaches of restoration, history and conservation, design and surveying, techniques and materials in line with the various fields within the subject of heritage. The conference will focus on operative effectiveness as well as on the theoretical aspects that have defined significant changes of outlook within this sector.
The conference has been structured round case studies presentations, some of which have been proposed by the local Do.Co.Mo.Mo. Italia office, presentations are not intended to be an occasion for celebration but an open confrontation of reciprocal improvement. The conference is being carried out in conjunction with the Slovene and Croat offices of the Association, with whom our country, and the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in particular, share the characteristics of the modern architectural objects and many of the central thoughts in the current debate.

In 1998 an extensive research programme was activated at the Università degli Studi di Trieste that has since positioned itself in the large framework of modern construction studies in Italy. The starting point was the recognised lack of research on building techniques used in the inter-war period and, in particular, on specific studies of the formal languages and on the construction methods that have been accepted and have diffused into the local area.
On the methodological level, placing the buildings and the districts created in the 20th century in the focus of the disciplinary debate has established an enlargement of the perspectives regarding the “historical value” of these projects.
Nevertheless, in spite of the progress which has already been achieved, it is undeniable that it is precisely this most recent architecture which has overwhelmingly been subject to tampering and a process of accelerated deterioration, and even, in the most extreme cases, to demolition. Invasive transformations, significant modifications in part or of whole buildings and districts, incongruous variations of the destined use, together with a natural obsolescence of materials and of construction and structural elements constitute some of the recurring themes in the research and in the most recent conferences on modern architectural heritage. The heritage, represented by modern and contemporary architecture that enters with merit within the discipline of restoration, poses new and original operational requirements. The restoration of modern architecture today constitutes an experimental area of research on the existing building heritage, rich in interest and challenging methods of treatment. It is the restoration, conservation and re-functionalising projects conducted in the last few years that has emphasised , on the one hand, the importance of the analytical stage and that of a critical reading of modern architecture using, most of the time, tools which have already been adopted for the so called “antique”; on the other hand it emphasises the lack of a tried and tested procedure for the modern restoration worksite, beyond a certain inadequacy on the normative level and that of protection.
Thus a consideration of the actual operational methods, which are rather differing and often contradictory, seems necessary. Today this involves various disciplines – from restoration to history, from technical and technological knowledge to town planning – in the attempt to draft an up to date framework, even if not exhaustive, of the current routine procedures in our country.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

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