Architecture in the second half of the 20th century: forms of expression and the “environmental issue”

Numerous architectural works from the second half of the 20th century, having a recognized cultural value, turn out to be quite problematic when observed in the scope of today’s unavoidable principle of environmental responsibility. Though representing an energy “issue”, they are at the same time a “high-level witness” in the context of architecture, whose original form of expression, language, and perception must be preserved as intact as possible. This paper critically presents three interventions on architectures in Turin by Domenico Morelli that allow us to make a series of general observations concerning the relationship between preservation and adaptation of works from the second half of the 20th century.