Historical architecture between the «culture of conservation» and the «culture of design»: controversies, misunderstandings and aims

The attitude towards historical architecture to existents varies consistently according to the different approaching criteria. The so-called ‘culture of design’ considers legitimate to work on them, as it was usual in the past. The so-called ‘culture of conservation’, instead, opposes the predominance of History, underlining the different conservative awareness that the established distance between ‘present’ and ‘past’ implies. Within the rich and sometimes harsh controversy between the two ‘cultures’, which are themselves not univocal, some contradictions, misunderstandings and different interpretations of the aim of the works emerge; broadly speaking, a different way to understand the ‘making of architecture’ arises.