Spoken into the void. Conservation management planning for the School of Mathematics at Rome’s University Campus (Gio Ponti,1935)

The School of Mathematics built within Rome’s university campus in 1935 is one of Gio Ponti’s masterpieces. Research and conservation planning for this building have made available a precise understanding of how to preserve the material authenticity of this piece of architecture. Yet, Sapienza’s governance appears more engaged with the constant discrepancy between available spaces and ever-growing functional demands required by academic activities rather than with the conservation of this valuable architecture. The Getty Foundation has offered an unrepeatable opportunity to develop research and to concentrate on the development of a strategic approach in order to continue using the building albeit yielding its cultural values and its conservation. But after the publication of the Conservation Management Plan, which could have been adopted as the starting point of a new approach to the preservation of the building, this has been subject to renovation and refurbishment, with replacement of finishes and of architectural elements that are affecting the overall material integrity. Conservation planning efforts and achievements appear to have been spoken into the void.