Considerations on the unfinished in architectural renovation

Preservation of memory is usually denied in the current practice of building transformation, which involves the renovation of plasters, floors, fixtures and finishes in general. However, it constitutes the characterising element of certain renovation projects carried out by preserving visible traces of previous lives and rejecting finishing as an erasure of the past. The terms unfinished and imperfect concur with an attitude of openly evaluating the possibility that the transformed building may experience new modifications, to whose design knowledge of the past condition offers great opportunities. In addition, the display of the untreated materials and the procedures undertaken corresponds to a frank, truthful way of operating that is believed to have repercussions in the field of ethics. Of the countries where this propensity to reject smoothing and camouflage is most marked, England and Switzerland are the richest in exemplary cases. In these areas, the influence of the ‘neo-Brutalist’ culture and the ‘As found’ tendency, which together helped mark the definitive overcoming of the orthodoxy of the Modern Movement, is manifested most strongly.