Among the important annual meetings of our profession is the Restoration Salon of Ferrara which always offers numerous ideas and new interests. Exhibitions, conferences, new materials and innovations in the conduction and direction of worksites, as well as the opportunity to learn about significant experiences of other countries, are now of international caliber. But what counts more for those like me who followed their hearts and chose the restoration of monumental, historical and artistic buildings right at the start of their university studies is to see the enormous year-on-year growth of the sector.
What was once ‘sensitivity’ on the part of a few big clients and professionals has become a daily consideration in many architectural choices, especially in the restoration and conversion of even common buildings and homes. Materials, techniques, and worksite conduction are increasingly seen in relation to the cultural-landscape context and “responsibility”, exactly as they previously were with many distinguished constructions inherited from the past.
Progress in the sector, that according to data released at the Salon now drives 176 billion euro and employs nearly four million people in various ways, has made this approach increasingly influential in every kind of architecture and increasingly affordable also to ordinary private owners.
A phenomenon whose growth makes personalization possibilities available to our creativity and the concreteness required by our work and the market, that were once limited to the favoured few.
A cultural game-changer, where there is still hope for it to become even more pronounced and widely available.
by Ilenia Girolami
