Consolidamenti e concezione strutturale del costruito

Very often modern strengthening techniques ignore the original structural conception of ancient buildings, introducing materials and behaviours typical of nowadays structures. Not only reversibility is overlooked, but the same essence of the ancient structure is unrecognised and any operation of de-restoration is made impossible. In some cases it means to distort and often also to cancel sole examples of ancient building technologies. As example, two case studies are exposed. The first is related to a relevant even if little-known renaissance structure, the wooden beam floor of the Sala Grande of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence: the original structural conception (composed beams, wrongly called “Leonardesque” beams, coupled to a transversal constraint made by metallic hoopings and opposing St.Andrew wooden crosses) was heedlessly deleted fixing with bars the elements. The second pertains Danusso’s strengthening of San Gaudenzio dome in Novara: stiffening the upper part with new reinforced concrete structures led to further inevitable works in the lower parts, so far to completely distort Antonelli’s structural conception.