La casa-albergo ‘Galassia’ di Jaretti e Luzi a Torino. Cronache, riflessioni, appunti da un cantiere di restauro / Jaretti and Luzi’s ‘Galassia’ Residential Hotel in Turin: Chronicles, Reflections, and Notes from a Conservation Site

Abstract

The emergency maintenance of the Galassia residential hotel in Turin—designed by architects Sergio Jaretti and Elio Luzi and carried out in 2012–2013 by architect Guido Aragona and engineer Anna De Agostini—offers an opportunity for critical reflection on approaches to the architectural heritage of the later twentieth century: a heritage not formally protected, yet identifiable for its architectural and experimental value. The building—an expression of avant-garde typological and formal research primarily oriented toward the livability of both private and shared domestic spaces—exhibited widespread structural and material pathologies, particularly in the roofing systems and the external infill masonry. The paper briefly outlines the project’s salient aspects, showing how even for ‘new’ architectures it is desirable to adopt a conservation-oriented approach whose operative principles are drawn from the restoration of historic structures.