Thirty years of practice on modern architecture: the standpoint of the Italian culture of restoration

The praxis established on Twentieth century architecture in the last thirty years has drifted away from traditional restoration principles showing how conservation problems of these artefacts tend to be solved with banal reconstructions. New shapes and innovative materials have suggested that principles and methodology of its restoration should also be such, so that the reconstruction of these buildings has been preferred to regain their original image rather than to conserve them materially and preserve their historic and architectural values. This widespread attitude is unrelated to the critical and scientific groundwork that characterises European conservation approaches, especially the Italian one, and rare but significant 'true' restoration works disprove the common places that generate the drift to reconstruction.