Italian perspective on the planned preventive conservation of architectural heritage

Abstract

This paper tells us a complex story on the historic evolution of preventive conservation of architectural heritage in Italy. Firstly, it introduces Cesare Brandi's Theory of Restoration, pointing out the peculiar sense of the word Restoration in Brandi's system other than the common sense in the international discourse, the limits of Brandi's theory to architectural conservation and his prophecy on preventive restoration. Then it talks about the different framework and practices of preventive conservation in the field of built heritage compared to the museum sector, the milestone of Giovanni Urbani's pilot project on programmed conservation and the leading role of the Risk Map of Cultural Heritage. Finally, based on the discussions of the durable change in the architectural conservation field after the Venice Charter, including the teaching in Milan School, the debate and re-definition of architectural conservation and the advance definitions of conservation, prevention, maintenance and restoration in the 2004 National Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape, it gives us an agenda for future trends of planned conservation with aims to conserve the material authenticity and promote the co-evolutional strategy.