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Restoration can also take place after an earthquake with heavily damaged buildings and monuments, but in this case, a lot more that superficial restoration needs to be done. For instance the recent restoration of the “Ponte di Rialto” (“Rialto’s Bridge”) in Venice, or even common restorations of monuments, is superficial and involves a revaluation and improvement of the appearance. Often times, restoration involves rebuilding giving the historic look and following the old structural building plans for as much as possible; this can be seen with the “Campanile di San Marco” (“St Mark’s Campanile) in Venice.

Both minimal and extensive restoration depend on the severity of their erosion and damages, and their success depends on the level of the people carrying out the task and the amount of resources invested. One of the disadvantages is that restoration is carried out by assessing the present conditions of the sculpture and the improvements made after are evaluated only to the past condition; this makes every restoration process lose a “piece” of the original building or monument. However, if losing some of the building or monument is what it takes to preserve its totality and beauty, it is worth giving restoration adequate funds.

In recent years, restoration has however had a more relevance in many regeneration schemes across the United Kingdom and in the World. Regeneration schemes require total restoration, which becomes during this process rebuilding the whole area from the ruins.

The Greenwich Peninsula regeneration that has been going on since the 90’s in London is an example of how the area has been restored. From an abandoned bunch of coal and steel industries, planners and architect have restored and transformed the area building on of London’s most iconic structures. The O2 Arena.

Another example is the London University of the Arts in King’s Cross. In 2008 a series of declined warehouses for coal, barley and wheat storage were destroyed and rebuilt to create a new campus. As of today, over 4500 students learn on campus and attend live performances, fashion shows and exhibitions.

Restoration and consolidation require a great amount of planning and care, both structural planning, economic planning and design planning. Many important restoration and consolidation projects requires a large number of professionals that go beyond the world of architecture and include the participation of all sorts of engineers, physicians and seismologists. In the restoration works of the famous “Leaning tower of Pisa”, from 1990 to 2001, dozens of world experts have had to deal with the sinking of the tower at a dangerous rate that would have caused its destruction. Luckily, the products of this intense scientific participation has made the iconic tower stable for the next 300 years.

To conclude, restoration and consolidation are essential to the preservation of our historic buildings and world heritage sites, to protect them from natural hazards and earthquakes. It is a necessity to recover the ancient “technic code” and style, and it is only ethical to look after our architectural heritage jealously, and to restore and rebuild our declined environment, is the reflection of our culture and progress.

Image credits: http://www.favaliant.co.uk/

http://www.dmbr.co.uk/services

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_pendente_di_Pisa