disUSO

Abstract

This section of the work is an attempt to understand the theoretical feedback of the theme of use within the main restoration theories during the 20^th century.

The subject of interest at the origin of restoration as a discipline, dealt, in most cases, with abandoned buildings, archaeological ruins and, more in general, with buildings that had lost their former function and for which, for the first time, the reason of their permanence was only for cultural reasons. While until that moment,  intervention on a pre-existing building implicated transformations and adaptation to new uses, the birth of the discipline of restoration introduced the possibility to conserve an artefact without a utilitarian aim and, consequently, without assigning a new use.

From John Ruskin and Eugene Emmanuelle Viollet-le-Duc’s first theorizations, to Gustavo Giovannoni’s contraposition between “dead monuments and live monuments”, up to Cesare Brandi’s Theory according to which function represents only a secondary aspect of a work of art, the author shows how the theme of use is almost irrelevant for the evolution of restoration discipline.       

An initial turning point is probably attributable to the 1975 Amsterdam Charter, which for the first time, through the concept of "integrated conservation", combines the restoration technique with the search for appropriate functions. However, it remains more a declaration of intent, linked rather to an attempt to frame the question of conservation in a socio-political context.

According to the author, however, the real evolution of the theme of the use must be traced back in time, when, at the beginning of the 20^th century, Alois Riegl with his Moderne Denkmalkultus, explained the conflicting values which are intrinsic to a monument, including the “use value” and the “age value”.