Tra qualità e compromesso. Il ‘valore’ della compatibilità d’uso

The research aims to reflect on the ‘value’ attributed to compatibility in the project of re-functionalization of historical buildings with specific reference to the projects of adaptation or functional reconfiguration of large state-owned architectural complexes. Furthermore, it intends to explore the relationship between use compatibility and design quality in reuse programmes. A clarification is firstly introduced about the word ‘transformation’, generally used in regeneration strategies, which implies a radical change. For this reason, the world ‘transition’ should be preferred because it instead recalls a gradual and conscious change, including the possibility of intermediate states until a new balance is reached. Transition supports the awareness of material and immaterial values for their transmission to future generations, but also calls for design quality by introducing new values belonging to contemporaneity. In order to move from transformation to transition, the University of Cagliari set up specific integrated protocols for the enhancement of public property – based on the coding and parameterization of physical phenomena, but also of cultural values, with the strong support of ICT. Particularly relevant is the knowledge stage since it can drive the design choices towards technical solutions able to maximize conservation. Two national research projects – SOSLabs and IMASS-CHAIN – working on this point, are demonstrating that, while we cannot rely on artificial intelligence algorithms to assess the best compatibility, a process of monitoring and self-assessment as a basis for the strategic planning of the intervention can help to predict the impact of design choices on historic buildings and on the values they bear. It is up to the individual decision maker the ability to critically read the meanings of ‘numbers’ and ‘values’ that the indicators return to choose the path to follow, well aware of the material and immaterial sacrifices that each reuse program brings with it.