Architettura e restauro nella parabola della sostenibilità. Miti, illusioni e genesi di un paradigma | Architecture and restoration in the parable of sustainability. Myths, illusions and the genesis of a paradigm

Abstract

The fate of the word ‘sustainability’ was sealed just over forty years ago with the introduction of a new phrase and its establishment in the international context. Through a semantic operation, the attribute ‘sustainable’ was linked to the word ‘development’ in a phrase that ended up including environmental, economic and social dimensions, reconciling separate notions and giving new meaning to words. Starting from this combination, diversions and transpositions of meanings of words, models and paradigms followed. The term ‘sustainable’, then ‘sustainability’, has seen its meaning shift and has been destined to take on – by extension of semantic areas, objects and contexts of reference – a different content from its original one, while an almost endless narrative has been and continues to be carried forward today in articles, volumes, essays and conference proceedings on the theme of sustainability and sustainable development, which has become (not without contradictions) paradigmatic even in the field of restoration and architectural culture tout court. The research, retracing its history and most recent developments, attempts to provide an overview of a concept that is as pervasive as it is ambiguous, marked by dissonances and antinomies, even in the field of restoration and conservation of cultural heritage.