Search

This study aims to verify the possibility to extend to the construction industry, the strategies implemented in order to monitor an historic building’s mircroclimate, Villa Barbaro to be specific, built in Maser between 1554 and 1560 by the architect Andrea Palladio. Data obtained from the monitoring enabled to proceed with the virtual modelling necessary to control the physic behaviour of the indoor microclimate through thermo/fluid-dynamic simulations, allowing the elaboration of some hypothesis, finalized to increase the level of comfort for the visitors and guarantee the conservation of the building and the goods guarded inside. The methodology adopted is extremely simple and not expensive, both in terms of purchase and positioning of the probes or gathering and managing data; therefore it is possible to imagine a wide extension of the method. All these information permit to forecast the percentage of microclimatic risk and to evaluate the level of comfort perceived by visitors. Together with monitoring, an oriented reading of “The Four Books of Architecture” has been done, in order to find the passages in which Andrea Palladio provides indications and suggestions that could somehow have a “microclimatic value”. The strength of the proposed methodology lies in the possibility to pre-emptively define, throughout a virtual building model, which actions could aid the preservation of the good, avoiding the risk component that would be taken working on the original.

“It is undeniable that infesting vegetation settling in monumental sites is a paramount cause of degradation” (Bettini,1996).The soundness of this assumption and the reliability of the following consolidated design and management practices for archaeological sites is definite.Nevertheless since several years, multidisciplinary researches and investigations are carried out, aiming to redefine the role of vegetation in conservation projects for archeological areas.Since the 18° century, some attempts at landscaping archaeological sites have been practiced, but only in exceptional cases, strategies for controlled and compatible management of vegetation have been taken into consideration. The influence of the vegetation framework on the conservation of ruins was taken even less into account: the only documented exception in Italy is Giacomo Boni’s theoretical and practical work in Rome, dating back to the 19° and 20° centuries.The contribution we would like to present comes from a wider interdisciplinary research on the topics of design and active conservation of archaeological landscapes, carried out by the authors. The main goal of the paper is to highlight the necessity to review the maintenance practices, normally applied to archeological sites, such as the complete and non-selective removal of existing vegetation, without regard for the species and without considering the index of dangerousness and actual invasive processes of each plant. Instead, the paper will demonstrate how an appropriate, compatible and well-managed vegetation framework could contribute to the preservation of ruins.

This paper aims at investigating advantages and disadvantages of the use of wire meshes as means of support for false ceilings plaster. We investigate the development of the conditions of use of wire meshes between XIX and XX century by comparing two kind of data: on the one hand, those found out in historical building manuals, and on the other hand, those obtained by the study of some cases belonging to historical Emilia-Romagna theaters. In particular, we examine the benefits that the XX century authors of manuals and false-ceilings restorations foresaw and the inconveniences that they couldn’t predict: their stability and the major resistance to earthquakes, the phenomenon of surface deposits and diffuse stains on stucco as a consequence of chemical degradation. Finally, we present some hypothesis based on the results of chemical laboratory analysis on mortar samples of two selected case study, in order to provide a qualitative and quantitative analysis of chemical interactions between lime mortar and wire meshes.

L'articolo è incentrato sul progetto di restauro e recupero dell'Anfiteatro romano di Tivoli. Abbandonato e dimenticato per molti anni, esso costituisce una parte essenziale del patrimonio culturale della città, integrato da monumenti quali la Villa d'Este, la Rocca Pia (il cui recupero sarà completato a breve) e le Scuderie Estensi. Il restauro dell'Anfiteatro pone, infatti, questioni interessanti, legate non soltanto alla conservazione del sito archeologico, ma anche alla sua comprensione, interpretazione e presentazione al pubblico (mediante ricostruzioni parziali), così inerenti agli uso compatibili. The paper is focused on the project of restoration and recovery of the Roman Amphitheatre in Tivoli. Abandoned and forgotten for many years, it is an essential part of the cultural heritage of the city, consisting in monuments such as the Villa d'Este, the Rocca Pia (whose recovery will be completed soon) and the Scuderie Estensi. Its restoration arises, in fact, interesting questions related not only to the preservation of the archaeological site, but also to its understanding, interpretation and presentation to the public (partial reconstructions), as well as to its compatible use.