The guarentee quality in building restoration project: a case study

Abstract

The concept of “quality” in the building industry is certainly not a new introduction. It already existed in the rules of the trade and the good advice of the contractors. The new concept is the measurability of quality, which involves a quantification of characteristics and parameters that are not simple and immediate as they are in other sectors of production. The complexity of the building process makes the measuring of certain qualitative parameters difficult, above all because of the vast array of requisites that the product (the design and the work itself) has to have. This procedure is now a matter of routine in other production processes. In fact, when a design is drafted we begin to get an idea of how difficult it may be to identify its objective evaluation parameters, above and beyond satisfying the client and the user. In fact, in the case of the design product and the building product the evaluation of functional parameters is not possible, but variables that are often linked to the specific case come into play (context, use, function…). In building restoration the designer has the difficult role of satisfying the demands of the assignment, creating a product that has the necessary requisites with respect to what already exists, and attempting to “improve” the craftsmanship from the structural and functional point of view without damaging its other distinctive features. The variety of parameters that are involved in a building restoration – we are only considering its interdisciplinary character and therefore the numerous professionals present – makes the outline of the entire process extremely complex, at the moment when the qualitative parameters need to be “measured”. The task of coordinating the different disciplines that are involved, carried out by the designer and the site manager, is fundamental. The building process must be more interactive and iterative than in any other similar case, with a constant flow of information between the people working on the project from the beginning, and it must be feasible. It must also be very flexible, in order to be adaptable to the demands of the people involved, but above all to the demands of the building itself. The most compatible project solutions will be those that come from an in depth knowledge of the building and its surroundings. Because of this a preliminary cognitive process, which then becomes a guide for the project, is essential. Defining quality, or rather qualities, in building restoration therefore becomes extremely complicated. It is a process of structuring evaluation around numerous parameters, to be analysed from the beginning of the project until the use of the building. This defining should be done on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the peculiarities that distinguish every restoration project. For one building the choice of materials may be a fundamental parameter of the evaluation, for another, the choice of a compatible function might be much more important, and for another, respect for the construction techniques used, and so on.