“HISTORIC PLANTS AS MONUMENTS” PRESERVING, RE-THINKING AND RE-USING HISTORIC PLANTS

Introduction Since the beginning of modern theories about restoration, in the Fifties of XIX Century, it seems that the problem of the introduction of modern plants in historic buildings has been explicitly treated just a few occasions (for instance Viollet-le-Duc wrote about this issue in his Dictionnaire). This attitude derives from the fact that in that age, coming from the industrial revolution, the "inventor engineers" began to address their attention to the plants in building. Central heating plants then appeared (from the Franklin stove to Perkins heating plants) and, a little bit later, gas lighting plants and then electrical lighting plants. The French architect declared that the restorer has to pay attention to add to the historical buildings all the comforts that can be assured by new plants, with the aim to improve the quality of the historic building. The theories about restoration that followed the ones by Viollet-le-Duc, mirrored that attitude, generally not in an express way, considering new plants as additions to the historic materia of the monuments. Following this, more than a century and a half later, several "generations" of plants have been installed in historic buildings or in buildings which have meanwhile become historic, and a more attentive attitude has been developed, consisting in the preservation rather than the restoration of ancient architecture, and rethinking that attitude seems important, accepting the fact that plants themselves became important documents that have to be preserved. Goals This paper would like to display how the preservation of historical plants is not only necessary to attest the technological evolution of the plants themselves in relation to the changing ways of life and to the life of buildings, but also that they can sometimes be re-employed depending on their typology through the use of new technological products, taking advantages from their potentiality. Methodology- The proposed methodology comes from a generally accepted methodology in the field of restoration of ancient buildings. The steps are: I. analysis of the existing plants; 2. evaluation of their still existing potentiality; 3. evaluation of the level of performances requested to the building and hypothesis about the new plants to introduce in the old building, according to the technical rules; 4. analysis of the compatibility between the historic plants, depending from their typology (lighting, wiring,HVAC etc.), and use of new technologies; 5. drafting of the new project connecting old and new. Results The results drawn from point 4 can vary from simple preservation of the historic plants to their effective inclusion in the new plant design. Conclusions-Components of historic plants, components of historic plants, stratified for more than a century in the historic architecture, can not be anymore considered as something not consubstantial to historical buildings. A really modern attitude in this field combines technical and historical knowledge, the evaluation of their functionality, the evaluation of their simple preservation "in museum" or their inclusion in the new plant design.