Recupero e conservazione: qualità e sostenibilità passano dalla gestione

The need to recover the quality of the built-up environment (seen as a particularly complex and vulnerable arrangement) demands a systemic approach that can tackle what are among the main causes of failure in terms of projects and programmes. In spite of significant advances, the normative, managerial, cultural and economic system in Italy is often unable to come up with adequate answers, owing to the complexity of procedures, relationships and performance. An attempt as been made to recover the accumulated delay, to comply with European directives and to confront the situation of ever-decreasing funding, through a process of modernization of norms from the 1990s onwards, allied to systems of governance and organizational arrangements in line with the principles of New Public Management. The disappointing results of reforms stranded in the sphere of a bureaucratic management indifferent to results, indicate a need to eliminate obstacles that prevent the managerial sphere from enjoying the same institutional authority that is attributed to the juridical sphere. Moreover, the increase in competition, the acceleration of the processes of technological innovation, the need to carry out renovation operations that safeguard the delicate balance between conservation and transformation, demand the utilization of newer, more pragmatic and flexible methods, such as Project Cycle Management and Project Management. These methods are widespread and commonly applied on the European and international level, and can contribute to rendering the process of intervention more reliable. Beginning from this analysis, and examining the Herculaneum Conservation Project and the Project management office at the City council in Venice, this paper aims to demonstrate the validity of these instruments, which, thanks to a Lean approach, are capable of overcoming the restrictions of an inadequate institutional and normative system, by implementing more effective renovation and valorization actions with regard to historical centres and the cultural heritage.