Ricerc@Sapienza

This research has a purpose: to detect the cultural debt between Italian environmental protection and Ruskin’s theories. In particular, this work investigates the liaison between Gustavo Giovannoni and John Ruskin, and the use of nature as a means for urban restore in Italy (in the early 20th century).
The approach is to analyze their most important works in order to compare the definition and the practical use of the word “picturesque”. This expression, in the significance given by Ruskin in the Seven Lamps of Architecture, stands for “naturalness of the artwork”, a concept that is also expressed as “genetic memory” of the dual nature-architecture system (its provenance is Sir John Vanbrugh’s memorandum for the defense of the ruines of Woodstok Manor in the Blenheim park).
Giovannoni supports his vision of the urban environment looking at the Ruskin thought on “picturesque”. He integrates the ruskinian principles of “naturalness” and “imitation” within his personal experience of restoration. In this way, he sets foundations for a new discipline: the urban restore, as a meeting point between resilience, art, architecture, nature and town