From restauration manuals to historical architecture atlases: recognition, knowledge and awareness for the conservation

Abstract

The need to get over the path covered by restauration manuals, thought simply as architectural solutions collection, makes necessary a reflection about the real role of these instruments and about their operational impacts. While restauration manuals are often based on a static vision of historical architecture, through a dangerous mechanical repetition of technical elements, atlases are expression of a dynamic idea, where each architectural component is considered in itself and studied as a single case. Atlases, in fact, refer to a “geographic” and dynamic conception in which cataloging is not an exhaustive and dogmatic process but an “always open” and critical one in order to knowledge and conservation.