Preesistenza contemporaneità progetto

This paper explores the relationship between existing buildings and project, which embodies the problematic knot around which theories and practices of modern architectural restoration have been developed and tested. It discusses the old/new antinomy, which is constantly at the centre of the debate on the future of built heritage, with a specific focus on fortified architecture. The text examines the links between fortifications and their historical, territorial, functional, and formal dimensions. It aims at updating and re-establishing these connections by working on the relationship between the diachronic dimension of the fortifications and their synchronic link to contemporary times. This discourse presents the perspective of experts in restoration, architectural design, and heritage protection, and is organized around the following binomials: projection/suspension; forms of language/forms of conservation; fragment/ wholeness; prevention/action; war/peace; addition/ subtraction.