Architettura in pietra artificiale tra autenticità, ripristino e conservazione. Il restauro di Palazzo Mariani a Messina

The former post and telegraph building, occupying the entire block 317 of the PR (City Plan) drafted by the Chief Engineer of the Municipality of Messina Luigi Borzì, was the first of the four buildings facing the central Antonello square to be constructed in 1916. It became the stylistic-architectural prototype for the design and construction of the other three surrounding public buildings that defined the city center. This building was acquired by the Peloritan University, which allocated offices and secretariats to it, but its poor state of conservation required an intervention aimed at restoring the plaster decorations on the facades. At the foundation of the restoration operations was the need not to alter the fragile balance achieved by the structure while simultaneously respecting the authenticity of the materials and morphologies. The operational phases were planned accordingly. Starting from instrumental metric survey and proceeding to the examination of the materials present, supported by laboratory research, and the deterioration affecting the building, methodologies for the least invasive and most effective intervention were identified to reconcile the needs of safety and preservation, without neglecting solutions aimed at energy improvement. The restoration of the historic building has revealed several discrepancies between the contractual regulations and the need to adapt them to the requirements of the building. This experience, carried out by the authors from the formulation of the project to the implementation of the intervention, has allowed for some reflections on the relationship between theory and operational practice, attempting to identify the most effective ways to achieve the goal of preserving the material authenticity of the structure.