LEARNING FROM THE EXCEPTION: RESTORATION THEORY REVISITED THROUGH PRACTICE

Today, restoration is confronted with a wide array of complex challenges, ranging from climate change and mass tourism to the pressing questions raised by the adoption of increasingly sophisticated technologies. Yet, amid these ever-evolving scenarios, an epistemological issue – seemingly elementary, even clichéd – remains unresolved: the relationship between theoretical reflection and on-site practice. In the face of the appeal of diagnostic tools and the seemingly straightforward solutions put forward by the latest advancements in so-called ‘green’ chemistry, critical frameworks appear increasingly weakened, often relegated to a sphere of restoration that few scholars are willing to engage with today, due to its inherently problematic nature.