Università Roma Tre

The teaching of the architectural restoration laboratory is part of the training activities of the restoration discipline that are taught in the Master's Degree in Architecture. The course is aimed at providing critical understanding of the main themes and problems of the restoration of ancient, medieval and modern architecture and at combining the theoretical dimension with the design experience on specially selected examples studies case. These examples will be taken into account in their historical development and they will be connected with other disciplines and fields of research (art, history, documentation and representation, anthropology and geography).
As part of this study path, the laboratory is aimed at achieving the following learning outcomes:
1) In-depth and experimented knowledge of the most up-to-date tools and methods for restoration and enhancement of the heritage and landscape
2) Understanding of formation and transformation processes of the historical architecture by means of the ability to retrieve, contextualize, analyse and critically interpret both direct (observations critical and measurement targeted to the monument knowledge) and indirect historical sources (bibliographic, iconographic and archival documents knowledge).
3) The ability to produce design syntheses about technical and constructive details of the considered architectures.

The Course takes place during the first semester of the second year of the Master's Degree in Architecture - Restoration.
The didactic activity consists of three thematic groups: introductory lessons that illustrate the theoretical and methodological themes related to the general concepts of Protection, Conservation, Restoration and Enhancement; lectures and seminars of critical and analytical study of general themes are following, with the presentation of models of design and executive behaviour, demonstrated by real examples. The third thematic core is the most extensive in terms of time: it occupies at least 70 percent of the course hours and consists of seminar activities aimed to the restoration project. Therefore, the workshop has an eminently applicative character and it is carried out through the drafting of the project on a study case suitably selected for its typological eloquence.
The project consists of a historical investigation, to be associated with the material and geometric reading of the artefacts and their state of preservation and it ends with the formulation of proposals suitable for intervention. The three thematic nucleuses contribute to the definition of the preliminary analyses useful for choosing the project and for defining the restoration technical initiatives. The training path develops starting from the general investigations on an urban scale and from the reading of the architectural and material characteristics of the architecture; so, it proceeds with the historical and typological knowledge of the study case (historical analysis, material documentation and architectural interpretation) and it ends with the technical drawings of the choices of executive project.

Giovanetti F. (edited by) Manual of Recovery of the Municipality of Rome, II extended edition. Rome: Dei; 1997
Marconi P. The restoration and the architect. Venice: Marsilio; 2001
Zevi L. (edited), Manual of Architectural Restoration. Rome: Mancosu; 2001.
Pugliano A. The Recognition, the Documentation, the Catalog of Architectural Heritage. Elements of a constituting Thesaurus useful for Knowledge, Protection, Conservation of Architecture, 2 vols. Rome: Prospective editions; 2009.