<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The site of Avella is a precious example of ruined medieval fortification with territorial and landscape values. The width and vulnerability of its masonry remnants require a systematic survey and physical investigation, necessary to any preservation and enhancement strategy planning, so far, not yet extended to the fronts of the fortress and the two walled lines. The understanding of the process, scientifically based, which over time has led the buildings to the present state of fragmentation has the same need. Obtain with expedited methods and customary instruments a photogrammetrically controlled survey, the stratigraphic study of the castle elevations and the processing of a photo-based 3D model is therefore the aim of the paper. Carried out on an interdisciplinary basis, it comes from the extension of the outcomes of a didactic workshop in master’s degree courses in Architectural Survey and Restoration Design, held in 2018. The surveying procedure with the drone proved to be the most suitable, also for the possibility of an expeditious and cheaper measurement phase compared to other surveying methods. The results comprise the fortress georeferenced ortho-photomosaic and its photo-based 3D model, then exported both as a point cloud and a 3D mesh. The workshop also implemented topography and terrestrial photogrammetry procedures, such as to be compared with the previous one.</p>

One of the more controversial topics about the preservation of disused historic buildings regards how to ensure them a sustainable future. This question is especially problematic respecting the increasing stock of worship places, like churches, fallen into disuse, closed or abandoned. The recognition and the safeguard of tangible and intangible values associated with them raise many debates on how these buildings should be protected and handed down to the future, complying with the community’s current needs concurrently. Should there be limits on reusing former worship places? Given the changing meaning of sacredness over time, how should ‘sacred values’ of disused church buildings be recognized and maintained? Can they be preserved adapting churches for new purposes? What about the building’s atmosphere? Should it be retained? Should it be adapted to the building’s new use?These and other questions, even involving the socioeconomic sphere, notably mark the field, given that the number of disused historic and modern Christian church buildings is still increasing throughout the West. Gathering different orientations and practices ranging from the historic preservation up to the building refurbishment, the so-called ‘adaptive reuse’ of buildings has been becoming more and more often habitual within Western countries even for disused worship places. Conversions of former churches according to this trend are differently valuable from a preserving perspective, since they have often implied remarkable changes to the building’s identity and integrity, even compromising the recognition and the safeguard of intangible values associated with. How should new uses be chosen, so that they do not endanger tangible and immaterial attributes of church buildings? Is the adaptive reuse the most suitable strategy in order to approach all the cited issues?Providing a brief overview on what the adaptive reuse of Christian church buildings fallen into disuse methodologically consists of, the study aims to suggest some answers to the mentioned questions, resorting to last specific international recommendations and guidelines. The prime limits and implications of the adaptive reuse of these buildings have been thus profiled regarding the preservation of tangible and intangible values they involve, concluding that only values centered preserving approach can provide a valid framework to face the challenge of the increasing redundancy of worship places.

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Small Italian villages, despite their significant variety , share the abundance of precious natural and cultural assets, the poor accessibility and the polycentrism that, historically, qualifies their settlements and a potential development process focused on the combination of innovation and tradition i.e. on the conservation and enhancement of their heritages. Scholars from different backgrounds have recently been emphasising the need to adopt integrated revitalisation policies in this regard, highlighting the role historic fabrics assume in their relationships – past, present and future – with contexts. Investigating the current state of studies on the subject, this paper highlights the instances, methods, purposes and limits of the approaches reserved for “residence” in this scenario, composing their possible critic appraisal.