Se tutto è patrimonio niente è patrimonio. La valutazione critica dell'esistente

The fear of the future that afflicts contemporary society has turned its gaze backward. A desperate search for meaning, where the exaltation of any form of distant identity – architectural, artistic, gastronomic, narrative, or tied to traditional production – coexists. If a crystallized value is assigned to every physical or immaterial element of existence, then nothing holds value. If everything is heritage, then nothing is heritage. If we do not return to building a critical perspective capable of discerning the real value of elements in the field, the very idea of the city as a living body is called into question a testimony of transformations, expansions, reductions, devastations, insights, and mistakes. Architecture is an open work, designed to be lived in and transformed. The evaluation of what should be preserved and represents potential heritage is an extremely complex issue. In deciding what to keep or not, we must consider the current state of the work, its degree of transformability, and its ability to come back to life. The challenge grows when the mconsolation of historical patina is absent, when the architecture in question is not so old. This is the context in which the debate on interpreting Modern architecture in Italy takes place, particularly concerning the evaluation and management of post-war works, an even more recent and more problematic legacy.