Valorisation touristique et authenticité: une question méthodologico-fondatrice pour la conservation

Conservation means to care and guard the material testimonies of the past. As Riegl states, we are induced to the cult of our heritage because we attribute it a specific values, rather copious and different ones. Nowadays, because of the rapidity of the transformations that have characterized our societies, many buildings are affected by a loss of usefulness and then of their intrinsic and original significance. And, beyond the traditional values of heritage as well as symbolic, historical, artistic ones - that have always lead the conservation processes and restoration interventions - now we have to consider the interferences of other values that are giving to cultural heritage different cultural significances. The contribution aims to deal the adaptive reuse issues by investigating the dialectic and the ‘processing’ of values in our contemporary time, taking in account also the psycological dynamics and aesthetical aspects. This in connection with the economic and technological transformations that entail a deep changement of heritage perception and interpretation. If on the one side cultural heritage represents an economic issue in terms of city and social development, on the other side – and for the same reason - it is compressed and exploited by ‘communication’ and it risks the loss of its genuine and intrinsec values, increasing a mere iconic one. This will be deepened by the analisys of the perception and fruition of the architectural and urban landscape that, in these last decades, are being changed by the innovative technologies, influencing the interpretation, use and memory of the past. It is for this reason that, in the adaptive reuse process, a rigorous methodological matrix is necessary, which includes various parameters to interpret social values for an inclusive and anthropological development and, at the same time, for the conservation of ancient and new values of heritage of the past.