A strategy to conserve material authenticity in Venice: from wall facing to urban landscape

Abstract

Unesco’s emphasis on authenticity as a requisite for a site’s interest draws attention back to the materials and substance of architecture. Material authenticity thus takes on the central role it also merits in the operational sphere, as an aim of the project and also as a means of enhancing cities like Venice.This assumption makes areas of detailed study strategic, like that of the medieval masonry in Venice, focusing on the distinctive role of the brick facing on an architectural level and as an urban image related to the historical surfaces. Conservation of these facings requires a meticulous analytical system and raises the question of the project on the fragmented surface, the subject thus becomes a test-bed for a maintenance approach carried out on different levels, in Venice as in any other historical context.

Keywords

• masonry
• surfaces
• stratigraphy
• deterioration
• conservation