Lifecycle oriented approach for sustainable preservation of historical built heritage

The intervention on Cultural Heritage has evolved from an idea of a post factum restoration, that puts an end to a process of continual becoming, to a preventive and constant maintenance, as a less destructive and cheaper action, actually recovery of a philosophy of intervention on historical buildings that has been part of the discipline of restoration since long ago (“care of monuments” supported by John Ruskin). In addition to the preservation of physical consistency, care and maintenance must face the problem of sustainability, to be seen from the economic, environmental and social points of view. Historical buildings don’t meet perfectly current standards in terms of energetic management and they have many restrictions in terms of construction techniques and typological and functional features, however they have many sustainable features: the energy of realization (embodied energy) had already been spent; they provide for a saving of material resources because they don’t need neither new land consumption nor the extraction, production and processing of great amount of materials; furthermore they often have morphological and technological features appropriate to environment and climate. The idea proposed is to consider the life cycle concept as possible method of sustainable preservation. The Life Cycle Assessment mantra "from cradle to grave", usually applied to new products, takes into consideration all components, from the extraction of the raw materials to the disposal of the constructive elements. Instead the main goal of historical buildings' conservation is to shift to infinity its “dismissal time”. Thus in contrast with the established LCA method, the study aims to lay the foundations for an innovative approach for sustainability assessment of existing buildings that should consider the resources savings and doesn’t set a time limit for the building’s life.