CIP A 2005 XX International Symposium, 26 September - 01 October, 2005, Torino, Italy 
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HISTORICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES AIMED AT 
FINDING NEW TECHNIQUES AND INSTRUMENTS TO RECOVER, PRESERVE AND 
MANAGE THE XXth CENTURY CULTURAL HERITAGE FOR FUTURE 
GENERATIONS 
R. M. Vitrano* 
*Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze 90100 Palermo, ITALY- :r.vitrano@architettura.unipa.it 
KEY WORDS: Architectural, Restoration, Rehabilitation, Heritage 
ABSTRACT 
The “building recovery” has been the key point of various talks that, since the ‘60s, have regarded planning and urban landscaping. 
The reinforced concrete-ruled XXth century has generated buildings that have resulted technologically flawed, if not altogether 
unattractive. These flaws can be justified by premature use of certain techniques (not will-known the necessity of historical research), 
but this can not justify the modem degraded townships, the loss of local urban characteristics and the environmental unbalancing. 
Where sites are of XXth century cultural heritage? Which are the methodologies for documenting and managing? 
This research is aimed at analysing new techniques and materials to address these problems. It also aims to establish the requirements 
of a reclaim plan. So the techniques for prevention from degradation and structural reclaim, will be studies through the use of 
traditional, experimental and innovative methodology. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The sustainable development is “the development that is able to 
satisfy the needs of the present generation, without 
compromising the possibility that the future generations 
succeed in satisfying their own needs” (Brundtlan report Our 
Common Future-1987) 
From 70s we become aware that the resources should be 
protected through new strategies of development and/or 
recovery. “Sustainable Recovering” means that we have to 
make sure that interventions are compatibles with the necessity 
of improving and protecting life and environmental context 
quality relatively to future needs, besides the present ones. The 
direction of the evolutionary processes in the technological 
field, the creativity and the ideals, will have to aim to forge and 
to guarantee a better future. 
Figure 1. Breuer M., Doltertal Flats, Switzerland 
Then the support is directed to guarantee our heritage. 
But what is the future of the XXth century architecture, which 
of our inheritances will we be able to pass on? 
2. “SUSTAINABLE RECOVERING” FOR THE XXth 
CENTURY CULTURAL HERITAGE 
During the complex evolutionary run of “making architecture” 
the materials have had a decisive role, both from a merely 
structural point of view, giving place to more 
solid and stronger structures, and from the formal point of view, 
making the architectural organisms to acquire lightness 
and flexibility, a new more consistent with places and times 
space. In this assertion an evident contradiction is linked to a 
great truth, the history is rich in examples: the “building boom” 
of 50s-60s at the height of the technological evolution, 
generates the modem “degraded city”, the suburbs without 
quality, the loss of the urban local characteristics, and above all 
the breaking with the environmental balances. How can we 
explain such regression? It is not the XXth century culture that 
has started all this off, like many people are inclined to think, 
but the part of it that the common sub-culture has wanted and 
has been able to understand, the building speculation has made 
all the rest using a new material and a new technique (the 
reinforced concrete) and adapting it to its own needs, depriving 
buildings of the more elementary requirements of reliability, of 
safety, and durability, we have got in front of us the awful 
Figure 2. Mies Van Der Rohe, Weissenhofsiedlung, Germany 
The argument is far-reaching, but it is important to stress that 
the XXth century architecture, our modem heritage, will be part 
of the tradition of the future if we are able to maintain and 
preserve it, if we are able to resolve the problems of