The Stuart Weitzman School of Design Graduate Program in Historic Preservation is hosting a lecture by Paolo Vitti, Adjunct Professor, University of Roma Tre and University of Notre Dame - Rome Global Gateway on Thursday, September 26, 2019. Advance registration will be required by September 19.
The lecture will focus on historical aspects of architectural conservation as well as on the methodology that can be used for analyzing and interpreting historic masonry, with a particular focus on archaeological heritage. Each building uniquely documents the construction process and all subsequent modifications, determining an "authentic record of the past" that needs to be preserved in all its integrity. From this arises the need to minimize intervention and thereby preserve the material authenticity of the fabric. To do so, the interpretative process becomes a fundamental and crucial component of the design solution that has to be developed. Vitti will argue that graphic analysis of traditional construction and on-site survey are fundamental tools to achieve this goal.
Examples discussed will include the fortifications of Paestum, the Domus Tiberiana, the Colosseum, and the Armenian Church in Nicosia-Cyprus.
Paolo Vitti is an architect and historian with over thirty-five years of experience in the areas of Ancient and Modern architecture and the restoration of cultural heritage sites. Vitti presently holds teaching appointments in both Italian and American universities. His work includes collaborations with national and international institutions, in the academic and professional field, as well as courses on conservation for architects and archaeologists of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture.
Vitti has authored many essays on restoration, museology, history of architecture and ancient construction, and specializes in the study of Mediterranean architecture, having made important achievements in the study of Ancient architecture. He has actively contributed to the activities of the Italian School of Archaeology in Athens since 2001.
His monograph on Roman vaulted construction in the Peloponnese-Greece received the Grand Prix of the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award in 2014 and the L’Erma di Bretschneider Archaeology Award. His design for the restoration of the Armenian Church and Monastery in Nicosia, Cyprus, received an EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award in 2015.
He is currently working with UNDP in the West Bank for major conservation projects and to built a cultural heritage policy for Palestine.
Paolo Vitti has been a Board Member of Europa Nostra since 2018 and is part of the scientific committee for Climate Change and Cultural Heritage.