Lab

Laboratorio di Metodiche Analitiche per il Restauro e la Storia del Costruito ((The University's highly qualified MARSC Laboratory), founded by Professor B. Paolo Torsello, has been working in the field of non-destructive analysis for historical architecture and restoration since 1990.
The MARSC Laboratory is the hub of activities aimed at understanding, conserving, protecting, and enhancing cultural heritage, specifically architectural heritage. Housed in the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD) of the Polytechnic School, it maintains close collaborative relationships with other departments, public institutions, and private entities, both in the form of consultancy and service provision. Demonstrating its relevance and vitality, the MARSC conducts studies and research on behalf of public and private clients throughout Italy.

Mission

Thanks to the ongoing training of its staff, the Laboratory also enables basic research on the most advanced analytical methods. It also supports the work of the Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Architettonici e del Paesaggio (SSBAP) has been operating within the Department since 1994, establishing itself as a source of national distinction, enabling students to approach their studies in a professionally oriented manner. It also supports second-level training (Master's Degree in Architecture, Master's Degree in Building Engineering-Architecture, Master's Degree in Building Engineering with a Building Retrofitting curriculum, and Master's Degree in Architectural Composition in the DAD and DICCA departments).

The Laboratory is divided into two sections: one dedicated to analytical methods for surveying and one dedicated to architectural archaeology and the characterization of materials from historical and culturally significant buildings.

Section 1: Analytical Methods for Surveying

Among the research lines and activities, developed in collaboration with other departments of the University of Genoa and with national and international institutes or research centers (Opificio Pietre Dure, CNR Cultural Heritage, etc.), we can highlight:

• rigorous longimetry for the three-dimensional survey of architecture and its three-dimensional and solid modeling;
• Topography for architecture;
• Rigorous and digital analytical photogrammetry, both flat and three-dimensional;
• Simple and mosaic rectifications for the survey of flat surfaces from orthophotoplans, point clouds obtained using laser scanners, or structure-from-motion techniques;
• Advanced information systems for restoration project management (DBMS, GIS, BIM, webGIS);
• Quantitative processing and analysis of digital images for the identification of materials and degradation phenomena;
• Digital image processing for the simulation of architectural conservation interventions;
• Development of repertoires of construction techniques in restoration.

Section 2: Architectural Archaeology (a) and Historic Building Materials (b)

The second section of the Laboratory explores two aspects of the built environment, each with its own distinct characteristics, yet frequently interconnected.
Subsection 2a, dedicated to the Archaeology of Architecture, is the development of the laboratory founded in the late 1980s by Tiziano Mannoni to study buildings from the ancient and recent past as direct "material sources," both to reconstruct their individual histories and to answer broader historical questions. Methodological research and applications in the field of elevated stratigraphy and archaeological and archaeometric methods, aimed at establishing the provenance and dating of materials and architectural elements, have since been carried out in close collaboration with the Institute of the History of Material Culture in Genoa (ISCUM), where highly relevant tools such as the mensiochronology of bricks and the chronotypology of portals have been developed. Also important are the analysis of documentary sources relating to the construction sector and the analysis of degradation and damage conducted from a historical perspective, to provide restoration planners with the broadest and most integrated knowledge and assessment elements possible.
The main lines of research and activities are aimed at:

• the archaeological analysis of architecture, with particular reference to the stratigraphic method;
• the understanding of how a building's structures have been modified since its initial conception and construction, both to enable its historical reconstruction and to contribute to structural and seismic investigations and the modeling of its current behavior;
• the development of tools for the absolute dating of materials and architectural and construction elements;
• the reconstruction of the rules of the art followed by master builders, in different eras and in various territorial contexts;
• the study of indirect sources relating to the construction sector for the purpose of interpreting historical technical vocabulary and constructing documentary chronotypologies.

Subsection 2b, dedicated to Historic Building Materials, studies their characteristics and degradation issues for the purpose of selecting interventions within the restoration project. Of particular note are research on local stone materials (marly limestone and slate), on historic binders, which extend to the study of late 19th- and early 20th-century concrete in collaboration with the Department of Civil, Chemical, and Environmental Engineering (DICCA), and on the steel-based iron of historic tie rods in collaboration with the DICCA and the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry (DCCI) of the University of Genoa.
The main lines of research and activities are:

• knowledge of materials and their behavior over time;
• analysis of the forms of degradation and alteration of built materials;
• evaluation of the effectiveness of restoration interventions on historic materials (surface consolidation, protection, etc.).

Research group