Architectural survey and BIM for the recovery project of a villa in the province of Messina

The uncontrolled and often unregulated urbanization, which has affected many Italian cities from the second post-war period up to the 1990s, has stimulated on the one hand the economy as well as, consequently, planners to enhance and recuperate the existing architectural heritage and its environment, trying to highlight the distances between housing standardization varieties and enliven contexts destined to be abandoned. Our cities, as well as the many surrounding villages, have a building heritage mainly made up of ancient constructions, often uninhabited, within an urban fabric where most people work, sleep, and live, in which small functions keep the urban context still alive. This reasoning led the heirs of the Marquis Loteta to recover the family villa in Itala (ME), abandoned for several decades and discharged, because in the province, electing it then as a new residence after the employment activity had finished in Messina, requiring a constant presence. The complex architectural system, in an advanced state of decay, required a survey campaign related to a design renovation. The study presented, underlines the survey carried out over twenty years ago, which led towards the noble residence revamp, designated as a new home away from the chaos of the city, immersed within nature and the surrounding cultivated fields. The survey of the status quo has been integrated with historical archival analysis, in order to acknowledge the temporal development of the architectural complex, comprehending better the original functions of the spaces and modulate their restoration within an anthropic level.