The restoration after the earthquake: Carli-Benedetti Palace at L’Aquila
The reconstruction of the historical buildings damaged by the earthquake of L’Aquila in 2009 has been
mainly oriented to the solution of the safety problems of the edifices. Actually, if the priority given to the
structural issues is reasonable, the low attention payed to the other needs of the buildings conservation
does not find any real motivation but the lack of interest to the cultural value of the historical architecture.
This cultural value, given by the authenticity of the edifice, more and more gives way to the apparently
more important values of safety, economy, rapidity of execution.
The project of intervention on palazzo Carli-Benedetti tries to answer to the structural exigencies of an
ancient building within seismic zone without betraying the usual methodology of restoration, based on the
deep material knowledge of the construction and its transformation on time. In a sense, this knowledge
is fostered by the wider possibility, after the earthquake, to investigate the edifice and to observe its
constructive vulnerabilities. Also for this reason, a project that want to solve the specific critical situations
of the historical building considering its complex and multifacing identity is much more effective than a
proposal of intervention based on the use of standardised praxis.
