Lifecycle approach for widespread built heritage: potentialities and criticalities

Built heritage conservation must face issues of material preservation and problems of sustainability from the economic, environmental and social point of view. Currently the sustainability is very topical, because of recent economic crisis and problems related to the envi-ronmental pollution, but is often limited only to energy aspects. The research suggests a “para-digm shift”: cultural built heritage has not only cultural values, but it could be seen as inherently sustainable: its preservation permits to save raw materials, energy of transportation, production and construction site and to produce less debris. A life-cycle oriented point of view allows to reconsider the management of historical buildings, taking into account new needs (new uses, environmental issue, etc.) and returning a general and more complete panorama, because it makes a balance between positive and negative contributions in the long term, considering all the aspects of sustainability.