Conservation at the borders. The boundaries of conservation
The concept of heritage addressed in the reflections of thinkers and theorists and the final purpose of
the conservation have evolved in parallel. In fact, until the middle of the 20th century this discipline
focused mostly on the restoration of monuments while the interest in other types of heritage only became
more prominent in recent decades, with a few exceptions. This text uses three specific examples to show
how conservation evolves and grows at a theoretical and practical level by working at the boundaries of
discipline. The three projects illustrated examine cases closely connected to these boundaries: a humble
vernacular building, whose state of abandonment has ensured the preservation of its authenticity and
its transformation into a monument of local memory; the construction, using traditional techniques,
of a new building as an example of innovation which also promotes the survival of traditional crafts
and constructive tradition; and the reinterpretation of an inconsistent space that unites ancient and new
fragments in an attempt to recover the memory of a place which has now vanished.
