The laboratory deals with the problems related to the structural intervention on existing buildings, setting them in the more general context of the built heritage conservation. Structural intervention is therefore seen not as a purely technical matter but as a complex activity aimed at maintaining the original characters of the buildings of the past. As such, it implies full awareness of the irreducible specificity, constructional and structural, of historical architecture, which must be properly comprehended. Knowledge of the construction characters of architecture is therefore an unavoidable requirement for operations aimed at assessing structural safety and defining strengthening criteria and techniques. It involves all three of the laboratory’s disciplines: technology, for which the materials, techniques, and construction processes are essential keys to understanding architecture; history, which from the historical development of the techniques and, in general, of the production systems and processes, explores the reasons for their selection and refinement; restoration, which takes historical techniques as a paradigmatic reference for the definition of modern strengthening criteria that can combine the often conflicting needs of safety and conservation. The laboratory is essentially focused on historical masonry architecture but does not exclude the possibility – to be defined year-by-year – of exploring broader chronological contexts, including the development of steel and reinforced concrete techniques (with the consequent new articulation of the building organism and its parts) or, on the other hand, the problems of conservation in archaeological areas. The theoretical/practical nature of the laboratory (see: Course organisation) requires assiduous attendance to lectures, which are the founding premise of the application phase, and active involvement in the exercise, which allows the acquisition of the skills necessary to correctly define the strengthening project to be verified.

Students completing the course will be: - competent in the evolution of building techniques and methods in relation to different environmental, productive, and cultural contexts; - able to analyse an existing building from the constructional point of view, cross-referencing different sources, and graphically represent its specific features; - able to understand the structural behaviour of existing buildings and identify relevant distress phenomena; - able to define the most suitable mechanical models to assess structural safety and justify the need and type of strengthening on a rational basis; - able to identify intervention criteria complying with the constructional and structural nature of the buildings and to define intervention techniques and materials.

Basic knowledge of architectural history, building technology and structural mechanics are required, which are compulsory curricular requirements for enrolment in the Master's degree.

With the support of a series of cases study discussed in the classroom, and with specific reference to the theme of the exercise (see: Course organisation), the following topics will be addressed: - the building organism and its components (foundations, walls, vaults and floors, roofs); historical criteria of design and strengthening; - analysis methodologies (direct survey, historical, bibliographical and archival analysis, diagnostics and monitoring); - structural analysis of historical buildings (the role of knowledge in the analysis of existing buildings, structural modelling, and current regulations); - strengthening techniques (intervention criteria and techniques, critical discussion of ancient and modern examples of intervention, seismic 'improvement').

The laboratory is organised into theoretical and practical activities. The theoretical activities consist of lectures on the main topics (see: Course program), sometimes with invited speakers, and in the critical discussion of real examples of constructional analysis, historical research, strengthening design. The practical activities consist of an exercise on one or more study-cases identified by the teaching team (or proposed by individual students or groups), in which a strengthening project will be carried out on an existing building, analysing it in its various phases: knowledge (direct constructional analysis – a certain number of site-surveys are planned – and bibliographical and archival research), interpretation (structural behaviour analysis and identification of distresses), design (definition of strengthening criteria and techniques). To work on the study-case, groups of up to three people are recommended (larger groups might be allowed if there is a large number of students).

A specific bibliography and suggested readings will be provided during the laboratory. Anyway, essential references are: B. Addis, Building: 3000 Years of Design Engineering and Construction, Phaidon, London, 2007 C. Carocci, C. Tocci (a cura di), A. Giuffrè. Leggendo il libro delle antiche architetture. Aspetti statici del restauro, saggi 1985-1997, Gangemi 2010 C. Guenzi (a cura di), L’arte di edificare. Manuali in Italia 1750-1950, BE-MA, Milano 1993. J. Heyman, The Stone Skeleton, Cambridge 1995 S. Poretti, Modernismi italiani. Architettura e costruzione nel Novecento, Gangemi, Roma 2008 A.M. Zorgno, Gli apporti della tecnologia alle fasi di riconoscimento del costruito, in A. Buti, G.V. Galliani (a cura di), Riabitat. Nucleo antico e destino della città, Atti del Convegno, Genova, 28-29 maggio 1987, Sagep, Genova 1989.

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria; Elaborato progettuale in gruppo;

Exam: Compulsory oral exam; Group project;

... The final assessment will consist of (i) an individual oral exam on the topics of the laboratory and (ii) the discussion of the exercise in which each student must demonstrate to master the phases of knowledge, interpretation, design. In the final assessment, the oral exam will account for 50/60% of the overall grade and the design exercise the remaining 50/40%.

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilità o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unità Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione più idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria; Elaborato progettuale in gruppo;

The final assessment will consist of (i) an individual oral exam on the topics of the laboratory and (ii) the discussion of the exercise in which each student must demonstrate to master the phases of knowledge, interpretation, design. In the final assessment, the oral exam will account for 50/60% of the overall grade and the design exercise the remaining 50/40%.

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria; Elaborato progettuale in gruppo;

The final assessment will consist of (i) an individual oral exam on the topics of the laboratory and (ii) the discussion of the exercise in which each student must demonstrate to master the phases of knowledge, interpretation, design. In the final assessment, the oral exam will account for 50/60% of the overall grade and the design exercise the remaining 50/40%.