New interventions in historical and consolidated urban contexts: low renovation processes for the valorisation of the patina of the time

Abstract

Among the multiple possible interventions on historical and consolidated urban contexts, two different approaches are the most diffused today: interpreting the project as a discontinuity with the surrounding environment, on one side, and reading it as a form of continuity with the existing fabric, on the other. Starting from these methods and through the analysis of the international state-of-the-art in the field of adaptive reuse, the article explores the opportunities of a third possible direction, resulting as synthesis of the above and showing different levels of controlled densification. This new language seems particularly suitable today for supporting deep renovation processes of existing and historic buildings, thanks to its ability of enhancing their tangible and intangible values.