Thesis title: Gli inutilia del Contemporaneo. Conservare l'amianto quale caso limite nel restauro del Novecento
The research moves from a supposed parallelism between spolia and inutilia. In the former, a circularity of materials can be
recognized, unconsciously ecological and economically sustainable: many traditional building materials can be reused and
re-enter the production cycle. Contemporary practices, however, also produce inutilia, disposable voids destined to become
waste. Hence the decision to investigate the inutilia par excellence: asbestos, an extreme case in the conservation of
contemporary heritage. Celebrated and widely used in the past for its “eternal” qualities, such as non-deformability,
resistance and incombustibility, it was also employed in cultural heritage. Today, legislation defines it as waste and directs
its removal, without however providing specific tools for the cultural heritage field; conversely, the Cultural Heritage Code
does not include dedicated protocols, as the issue is not yet fully understood.
To bridge this knowledge and operational gap, therefore, in addition to bibliographic research on a path still partly to be
developed, three case studies belonging to architectural, artistic and industrial archaeological heritage were selected. Onsite surveys, micro-sampling and diagnostic analyses were carried out to qualitatively assess the risk of fiber exposure. It
emerged that, depending on the degree to which asbestos contributes to the construction of the work’s form, it can also
contribute to the aesthetic quality of the object: this marks a critical threshold for the restoration of twentieth-century
heritage—finding solutions to preserve materials that contribute to an artwork’s image while potentially causing harm.
The research does not aim to resolve these issues, but rather to outline a methodology of awareness for managing situations
of conflict between the existence of a work of art and conditions of human sustainability. In practical terms, it proposes to
“translate” Ministerial Decree 6/9/1994 into the field of cultural heritage. In this way, restoration can transform a material
considered “waste” into a safely managed testimony, reconciling health and cultural responsibility, and suggesting an
approach that, starting from the comparison between spolia and inutilia and taken to the extreme with asbestos, may be
extended to the restoration of other complex and potentially harmful twentieth-century materials.