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The land, with the discovery of its fragility (highlighted by the news of daily catastrophes), can guide us towards a more fruitful relationship with the nature which we belong; it is necessary to mend the attitude with the land as a shared common history.

The School of Music of Finale Emilia is an example of construction and management best practices that allowed the creation of a building with environmental and social awareness, with the aim of promoting the revitalization of the entire urban area, heavily hit by the 2012 earthquake.

The Chimney of Politecnico, landmark of the prestigious universitary campus in Milan, has been deeply analyzed, during a recent conservative intervention, with also the installation and setup of instruments useful for a future constant check-up of the building. Divided in five operative steps, works have been carried out largely with rope access inspections, both inside the “tower” and ouside it, in really critical conditions for the technicians involved.

In more detail, during works: a metal (steel and aluminium) platform has been built on the top of the chimney (56 m), in order to permit further rope climbings; the steel service levels, already existent inside before the intervention, have been strongly anchored to the external structure made of bricks; the inner “tube” of the chimney has been restored using specific lime plaster and steel hardware cloth.

The result, in addition to a full high resolution photografic report, has been the setting of a coordinated system of solutions, techniques and methods, useful for other similar conservative interventions.

The basis of the project is the loss of identity of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, born two centuries ago as the beating heart of the district of Culture. This aggravates the effects of the economic default of Opera Houses in our country. The project aims to give the Teatro Comunale back its historic role in society through a strategy of building work on three points.

1) The two “Paths”. The” Outer Path” is a place of meeting, representation, trade (stands, a cavea, a giant screen) thought to regenerate the degraded Giardino del Guasto, and to connect pedestrian flows, along Via Belle Arti and Largo Respighi, to the Theatre.

The “Inner Path” flows between records and instruments stores and bookshop specialized in music and art, then it crosses the eighteen-century wooden attic leading to rehearsal and incision rooms for rent and to a learning space for schools, and finally gets to the top of the scenic tower. Here there are a restaurant and a wine-cellar which offers the better overview of the historic heart of the town.

They have been thought as a chance to approach the Theatre for those who aren’t usual consumers of Opera performances.

2) The project shows the strengthening and renovation of the scenic shares, consisting in an advanced scenic-machine, an efficient loading / unloading, in the highly develop of rehearsal spaces, in order to improve and diversify production and audience.

3) The energy self-sufficiency (zero energy) is the third aim of the project. It is not just a way of cutting operating-costs but also an “ethic symbol” because it “updates” an institution created in 1763 as an engine of social and cultural promotion, in the heart of the “City of Culture”. In order to clear energy consumption and emissions we need a highly insulated building-enclose and a capillary system of mechanical ventilation which can minimize dissipation for transmission and ventilation. For the purpose of heating the building gets enough energy through renewable systems: PV on the “solarium”, geothermal and a hydroelectric rotor implanted in a neighboring canal (Bologna is very rich of underground canals and has traditionally used these as a source of energy since the Medieval period!).

The architectural choice also required large areas of glass (for the space of the Inner Path, and for the offices of the new administration) that are not obscured by external shading. In order to protect the interior spaces from overheating in summer, the project has studied a “micro double skin of glass” (to ventilate the glass skin and to multiply the solar factor of glass surfaces).

The project will cost around 75 million € (more than half for the scenic-machine). But the most important economic results are:

1. the revenue generated from the shopping and dining areas;

2. the economic gain which emerges from the compared analysis of energy expense of the existing building and the restored one.