The restoration of the Carbonia OND: research and planning

ABSTRACT: In 2001, the technical department of the municipality of Carbonia, a Sardinian coal-mining town built between the two world wars, worked in consultancy with a research group at the University of Cagliari to restore the National Recreational Club (OND) for employees, designed by Gustavo Pulitzer Finali in 1937. Despite the stylistic and constructive limits imposed by the autarchy, it constitutes one of the most evidently modern buildings in the city centre. The comparison with the state of degradation and the modifications made, the mixture of continuity and innovation in style and techniques, and the need to change the original intended use required a restoration operation based on different approaches, based around the unusual relationship between research, design and construction.