Analysis Methods for the preservation of Bologna Municipal Palace – Metodi di analisi per il restauro del palazzo Comunale di Bologna

Preservation requires a deep understanding of the artefact, using critical awareness to guide every intervention, from conservation to functional updating. Within the study of the complex organism of the Municipal Palace of Bologna, historic seat of political power, the deepening into the architectural history of the XIII-century reveals the opportunity to experience complex methods of analysis, which integrate a variety of direct and indirect readings. The highly articulated score of the façade shows an intimate superposition of various traces, openings, consolidations, extensions, floor divisions, turning the leitmotiv of a diachronic reconstruction of the entire artifact portion. The analysis of the results of trilaterations, laser scans, building site and notarial documents, drawings, literature sources, all is systematized elaborating a diachronic matrix of archaeological inspiration. Such results enable the interpretation of the unknown signs with physical and chronological relations up to reveal historical passages and constructive vulnerability, without invasive methods: each sign reveals itself as precious testimony, and it is compulsory to be enhanced by aware preservation