TECHNICAL SYSTEM HISTORY AND HERITAGE: A CASE STUDY OF A THERMAL POWER STATION IN ITALY

Among the less explored aspects of the history of the buildings, with a few honourable exceptions in Anglo-Saxon literature, is the history of technical systems (heating, wiring, lift, artificial lighting, etc.). Yet technical installations are one of the most important aspects of differentiation of traditional architecture from the modern age, along with the introduction of concrete, steel, glass and other products of industrialisation. Technical systems also present a diversification in the manner of use of the building, even old ones, which are equipped with facilities. Finally, the types of systems, because of their transience and the absence of specific historical culture, risk falling into oblivion, on the basis of trends imposed by external factors (energy efficiency or the availability of cheap energy, for example). Therefore, we have taken into consideration a thermal power station built in the 1930s in a rationalist building in Forlì (Italy), with the intention of studying and preserving the approach