REINFORCED CONCRETE IN RESTORATION WORKS OF MONUMENTAL BUILDINGS Study of the Interventions Conducted among Central Italy and Southern Part of United States in the Twentieth Century

The historical built heritage of the present day constitutes the result of the continuous modifications from the past. The development of theories, the discoveries of materials, the alternations of natural and human events flowed into what it is the actual form of this heritage. In this overview, an important role, if not primary, is employed by the restoration works, which handed down this legacy to the present day. After the first theorizations and applications which characterized the 18th century, in the last century the restoration had considerably increased its primary role in architecture, with its development, thanks to the new theories, the international debates, and also the new materials from the technological growth. As the restoration theories and their applications, also the modern means found in the same period their most important developments and experimentations. One of these means is the reinforced concrete, which strongly characterized the field of architecture, interesting not only the new constructions , with the applications pursued by the most important architect in the history of the time, but also the field of preservation. In this last case the conducted research intends to focus on. The use of reinforced concrete pursued in the restoration of historic and monumental buildings represents a specific approach to the existing which characterized large part of the last century, in which the necessity of preservation increased its role in the society. Inducted by the natural events, such as earthquakes, human factors and also the decay conditions of the built heritage, the efforts of preservation of the last century found in the ruled used of the modern materials, together with also their quick and easy applications, the possibility of reinforcement and recovery. The research had been conducted among different areas, aiming to identity common aspects related to the application of the modern means: Italy and United States (focusing on the central Italian areas of Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria, and the southern area of the US as Texas and California (thanks also to the research conducted at The University of Texas at San Antonio). In this overview, the research intended to provide a broad analysis of the interventions in the specific areas, aiming to identify the theories, the elements and the approaches pursued; the realization of synthesis forms, which are reported in the appendix of the dissertation, constituted the starting target of the research, thanks to which it had been possible to proceed with the other analysis and studies. The related study of the historical development, with the theories, and the detailed analysis of some interventions let to understand the development during the entire century, until the present day. In particular, the analysis also of the structural impacts of the interventions constitutes another key point, aiming to individuate the peculiarities of the interventions relatively to the form and the architecture, as much to the structural field. in this way, the thesis aims to individuates some critical evaluations, both on the formal impact of the applications than to the structural effects due to the alterations of the built organisms.