ABSTRACT
The issue of policies and procedures regarding the preservation of twentieth-century architecture, including works that range from iconic to "minor" and encompassing all nuances of rehabilitation, restoration, replacement, and so on arose in the 1960s following a number of controversial demolitions. During the 1900s, the gradual fragmentation of the building organism, generated by new construction models, gave a central role to the relationship between architecture and technology. In a relationship at times contradictory and ambiguous, the evolution of building techniques and materials has followed many non-linear, varied and often tortuous routes varying, of course, according to geographical, cultural and economic conditions. The evolutionary routes have undergone phases of acceleration and deceleration, developing through stages of breakthrough, permanence and continuity, as well as through realism, pragmatism and dramatisation of the technique. Reconstructing the life of the building was necessary in order to re-design the cladding of the portico of the Palazzo Postale in Rome, by Adalberto Libera and Mario De Renzi.
