Publication of the volume: Upcycling Architecture in Italy since 1945

The volume Upcycling Architecture in Italy since 1945, edited by Alessandro Benetti, Alberto Bologna, Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes, Ilaria Giannetti, and Gabriele Neri (2026), has been published. ISBN: 9791222328546

The book constitutes a major scientific output of the research project Upcycling Architecture in Italy. Forging and Promoting a Renewed Building Culture, funded by the European Union through the Next Generation EU programme within the Italian PRIN 2022 PNRR framework.

Conducted over a two-year period, the research involved four academic units: Politecnico di Torino, Sapienza Università di Roma, Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, and Politecnico di Milano. The volume re-examines Italian architectural culture from 1945 onwards through the lens of upcycling and Design for Disassembly (DfD), understood as design strategies, cultural constructs, and operational alternatives to linear models of material production and consumption.

The essays and case studies challenge the conventional interpretation of the late twentieth century as a period of rupture with long-standing traditions of reuse, instead highlighting continuities, experiments, and design trajectories that anticipate contemporary circular practices.

The book is structured into five thematic sections. Each section includes a critical essay and a set of case-study sheets authored by members of the research team and invited scholars, reflecting the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the project.

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Published by Mimesis Edizioni, the volume is available both as a printed edition through the publisher’s website and in Open Access, freely downloadable from the same platform.

Would it be possible to re-examine Italian architecture from 1945 onwards through the lens of Upcycling and Design for Disassembly – understanding these as design strategies for reusing existing materials while adding new value, and as critical alternatives to the relentless demand for producing new materials? This innovative volume identifies and analyses twentieth-century Italian architectural experiences that reveal the continuous adaptation of ancient design and building practices of reuse, which can be considered visionary precedents of today’s upcycling trends. In doing so, it challenges the usual view of the twentieth century as the period when the construction industry abandoned millennia-old practices of architectural reuse in favor of a cradle-to-grave model. The essays and case studies featured in this book examine anachronisms, the endurance of ancient traditions, and pioneering design experiments in Italy and beyond. They uncover the roots, ambiguities, and potential of an architecture of upcycling, and provide a new historiographical, theoretical, and design framework for its understanding.

The book can be purchased in print and accessed in Open Access at the following link