The Preservation of Built Heritage Typical Characteristics in through the Codes of Practice. An Operational Tool for the Renovation of San Giovanni Lipioni's Heritage.

In order to preserve the typical characteristics of the heterogeneous Italian built heritage, a vast production of manuals has developed over the past century, providing designers with a solid knowledge base and relevant guidelines. The main purpose of this paper is to outline the role of restoration manuals as an operational tool for built heritage preservation, describing the methodology from data collection to drafting. The case study of San Giovanni Lipioni has met a progressive depopulation over the last decades, causing the abandonment of many constructions and placing some of them at risk of disappearing. Fifty-one building units have been surveyed, analysed and mapped using summary factsheets to reveal the construction characteristics and weaknesses, which become the knowledge core of the Restoration Manual. Thereby, twelve categories of construction elements were classified, and each component is described through both graphical and textual bookplates aimed at comprehending how they were built, offering a detailed description in terms of materials, geometry, work stages, structural, energy and conservation weaknesses to find the most proper intervention. The Restoration Manual is a significant theoretical and practical reference for local administrations and technicians for vernacular architecture preservation and is an essential part of the village's cultural legacy.