La questione dell’edilizia residenziale pubblica fra storiografia, conservazione e trasformazione

The study and conservation of 20th century public housing is increasingly gaining space within the research on the existing city. Both if considered a historiographic issue connected to the development of the 20th century city, within the framework of the by-now consolidated field of “conservation of the modern”, which looks at the historical and architectural values of this heritage, or if it is included in the wider field of architectural design, it represents one of the emerging research sectors. While in Europe the topic has already been addressed with some interesting results, in Italy it is mostly limited to a still unfocused academic field, clearly lacking the synergies which it would require in order to be put into practice. Nevertheless, 20th century Italian history has witnessed some of the best design cases in terms of public housing, such as the INA-Casa or INCIS neighborhoods, or some of the L. 167/1962 housing plans. The conservation of this heritage requires an interdisciplinary approach and must recognize the evidence that rarely these housing estates are in need of formal transformations, but rather the implementation of appropriate conservative or maintenance actions, thereby reaffirming their historical image and value. This paper intends to bind the threads of a process, which through the recognition of value, leads to the definition of limits and potentials of architectural design and conservation in the context of the 20th century Italian city.