Factories and Industrial Buildings as a 1960 to 1980s Heritage. Issues for Their Preservation and Reuse

In the endless world of stock built to house industrial activities, a few examples of buildings with heritage value stand out, difficult to distinguish at first glance from the rest of the stock. These are buildings often constructed by architects of quality, in which there are either construction solutions, or typologies, or finishes (or even all these elements together) that make those factories of exceptional interest from a technological, historical, social etc. point of view. On many occasions, these buildings end up forgotten and neglected and, after more or less long periods, end up being demolished and removed from memory; on other occasions, they have less definitive fates and are reused for new functions. Even on these occasions, however, they often end up losing their character and those elements for which they were considered remarkable. This contribution stems from some university research undertaken over the last decades on industrial buildings located mainly in southern Italy. The ways in which this particular heritage, which is only on very rare occasions protected by the protective rules of Italian law, is wiped out are the most diverse. In general, the greatest risks arise from incongruous new uses, in which the values it carries are not considered in any way. In this contribution we will try to put in order some useful questions to build a possible methodology to face the restoration project of ‘author factories’, defining ‘quality’ elements and factors.