History as a design element
Faroldi, Emilioa; Vettori, Maria Pilarb
aDepartment ABC, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, bDepartment ABC, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Abstract:
The article article intends to explore the relationship that the contemporary architecture project establishes with history, in particular in an Italian context, full of opportunities for such relationship.
The role of the project in the process of reuse, redevelopment and transformation of built environments necessarily refers to a change of the meaning of the urban evolution over time, placing specific attention to strategies and planning based on consciously relating to the existing and to the effective coherence between the functional, formal and technological choices.
The topic deals with the substantial intervention on the existing architecture: grafts, additions, dialogues with urban voids; from adaptive reuse and the relation with the cultural heritage and contemporary needs, through recovery actions for social living, to reasons related to technical and technological innovation.
The contemporary culture of saving land and resources makes the relation between historic pre-existences and contemporary needs, strategic. that requires an interpretation of the project as “creative modification”, connected to the idea of a necessary innovation in order to find a coherent identity between continuity and discontinuity, between integration and innovation, in terms of functions, processes, languages, technologies, materials.
Keywords: history, architectural design, tradition, innovation, continuity