Restituire identità al moderno. Rigenerazione e riuso dell’ex cinema Bologna / Reclaiming modern heritage. Regeneration and reuse of the former Cinema Bologna

Abstract

The paper addresses the recovery of modern architecture, as a diffuse, hybrid heritage, shaped by the urban and social transformations of the ‘Short Century’. In Rome, the 20th-century ‘building hunger’ produced a landscape where speculative density and episodes of quality coexist, forming a partly forgotten reserve of urban value. The former Cinema Bologna (Morandi, 1947–49), later converted into a bingo hall and abandoned, becomes an emblematic case study of a recovery process combining conservation, reuse, and adaptation, restoring a public and cultural function to the space. The project, promoted by Libera and Berretta Associati, demonstrates that restoring the modern cannot be confined to a defensive, object-oriented approach but must take on a processual and cultural dimension, mediating between history, constraints, and new uses. In this sense, recovery operates as a palimpsest where material and immaterial practices converge to restore identity and a sense of belonging to the public city.