09362 - Architectural Restoration (A)

Learning outcomes

The task of the course is making the student able to elaborate and produce a project in the field of heritage preservation and restoration, project that will be related to a specific building. The building (a contemporary or ancient one, in any case of historic interest) will be interested by visible and consistent problems of deterioration  and decay of materials and of the frame. It has to be accessible, it has to permit a philological and historical-critical study and a close reading of the materials, of the decay processes and of the building techniques. The student will be requested to produce a realistic project, paying attention to all the specific aspects of a restoration project (how you can reuse the building; which problems in relation to plants; accessibility etc.).

Course contents

Among the different possibilities we can choose, it's undeniable and clear that

conservation of historical architecture is the only way to permit people who will come after

us to repeat the experiment where we've left it.

Projecting an intervention on existing architecture is an activity of huge responsibility: the

architect has to be conscious of the result that his choice can bring, although this

consciousness has taken long time to become a real part of architects or the engineers.

The aim is to give the competences to face a restoration project on a monument,

individuated for its problem of conservation and its accessibility, making a philological and

historical-critical reading and approaching the analysis of the building.

The course is divided in theoretical and practical classes. The check on the results

reached by the students will be part during the course and part at the final exam.

Readings/Bibliography

the same as in italian; an useful book in english is 

A History of Architectural Conservation Jukka Jokilehto Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002

Teaching methods

The course is organized in lectures and work in the field. The lectures will support the work in the field on the topics of the project on heritage; the will focus on topics as history and theory of restoration, methodological and general topics, technical and building site problems.

Buildings that have been studied:

2009-10 Cesena, Abbazia del Monte

2010-11 Forlì, Palazzo Gaddi

2011-12 Meldola, Ex Ospedale

2012-13 Forlì, Ex Asilo Santarelli

2013-2014 Predappio, ex-Casa del Fascio

2014-2015 Cesena, Palazzo Bufalini e Porta Fiume

2015-2016 Cesena, Palazzo Guidi

2016-2017 Cesena, ex Convento degli Agostiniani

Assessment methods

The evaluation will be carried  out at the end of the course, through the examination and discussion of the processed products regarding the restoration of a historic building; the professors will check the achievement of educational objectives:

-Be able to set up and conduct historical research applied to the building of the exercise;

-Be able to draw a geometric survey for the restoration (in-depth construction details; plumb; bulging ...);

-Be able to draw up a structural framework of the factory, with detection of static and dynamic instability phenomena;

-Be able to identify the materials and write them down on geometric reliefs previously produced and on appropriate analytical cards:

-Be able to identify the forms of degradation and note on geometric reliefs previously produced and on appropriate analytical cards;

-Be able to connect forms of degradation to their possible causes, annotating them on the geometric reliefs and on note cards analytical and defining interventions to reduce or remove them;

-Be able to formulate a program of compatible use with the building (functional organization);

-Demonstrate to have applied plant engineering skills;

-Be able to draft a plan according to the levels prescribed by the regulations for the sector (preliminary, definitive, executive);

-Be able to define the specifications and calculations-metric estimation applied;

The exercise follows a path from a fact-finding phase, gradually comes to the design one.

The stages of that path can be summarized as follows: historical-critical investigation, survey, examination of materials and construction techniques, analysis of the degradation, conservation and restoration proposal (see above).

The drawings, duly stamped by the professors, will be presented as the progress of the work, according to a schedule announced at the start of the workshop, the evaluation will take place at the final examination, while the non-delivery of the documents on the dates indicated constitutes grounds for exclusion from the laboratory, and all entries must be completed by the date of appeal and will be part of the final exam. The tables in size and number to be agreed with the professors, should be numbered progressively and report, among other indications-university, degree, lab, teachers, tutors, academic year, subject of study, subject of a single carriage-i authors' names in full. A copy of the work, together with a copy by digital media, will be retained in the archives of the course.

Teaching tools

The course will organize visits to restoration sites, organized during the academic year, in accordance with the institutions of protection and ownership. In addition, at the end of each lesson, further information will be offered about specific materials related to the topics covered during the same.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Pretelli