Paola Boarin

The Dialogue between Structural Interventions and Sustainability Criteria in Rating Systems for Cultural Heritage: The Experience of GBC Historic Building

ABSTRACT The major disruptive seismic events that have hit Italy in recent years (2009, 2012 and 2016) have started a disciplinary debate regarding the need to tighten up requirements for structural strengthening of structures in historic buildings, in order to avoid the loss of human lives and heritage. The preservation of materials resulting from an increased level of performance would positively affect structural systems, as well as the preservation of historic and cultural values and their transmission to future generations. This article explores the relationship between cultural sustainability and the structural rehabilitation of historic architectures, two key aspects contributing to the achievement of a wider sustainability goal during the restoration and renovation process of historic buildings. The contribution explores how GBC Historic Building®, the first and only rating system assessing and certifying the sustainability level of restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptation of historic constructions, addresses the topics of structural tests and monitoring, as well as reversibility and structural compatibility.

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

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.

Nuove dinamiche di intervento nel tessuto urbano consolidato: processi di low renovation per la valorizzazione della patina del tempo / New interventions in historical and consolidated urban contexts: low renovation processes for the valorisation of the patina of the time

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.

New interventions in historical and consolidated urban contexts: low renovation processes for the valorisation of the patina of the time / Nuove dinamiche di intervento nel tessuto urbano consolidato: processi di low renovation per la valorizzazione della patina del tempo

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.