Post-trauma Recovery of Monumental Buildings in Italy and the US at the Beginning of Twentieth Century

Abstract

This chapter compares the approaches to post-trauma restoration as pursued in the first years of the twentieth century in Italy and the US. Focusing on specific places hit by destructive disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, as well as bombardments during World War I and II, the research presented here focused on the deployment and insertion of reinforced concrete elements within existing structures. After the first experiments, this strategic approach was deployed widely in the 1930s because of the significant impact of new international theories, such as the Athens Charter for the Restoration of Monuments, whose declarations were applied as guidelines in almost all successive interventions. The introduction of different case studies for each area of interest led to the use of reinforced concrete structures all over the world during this period. Taking as examples here two restoration interventions, undertaken, respectively, in 1936 and 1937: The church of Santa Lucia, in the Marsica and the Franciscan mission of San Jose y San Miguel Aguayo, in San Antonio, Texas, these represent two cases in which reinforced concrete assumed an important role in the re-definition of the lost spaces and not only the replacement of structural elements. Given certain aspects that emerged during research, the conclusions aim to evaluate critically the methodology of these interventions and to provide some potential additional research strategies. The chapter contributes to the global literature on the restoration of monumental buildings.