Ethical Aspects Within the Built Heritage: Breaking the Bell Jar

Every technological process involves ethical aspects that are highlighted in the values which – more or less explicitly – underlie them, in the way of dealing with risk and in the percentage overlap between the sphere of users and the sphere of experts. The processes concerning the architectural heritage, with the objectives of knowledge, conservation and enhancement, are no exception. In this case, the ethical aspects mainly affect the public dimension and the collective interest and are intertwined with the cultural identity and the prevailing behavioural patterns. The reliability of the interventions, accessibility and communication are some of the main research topics developed in the last two decades in the field of built heritage that can be usefully looked at from an ethical point of view. The paper leverages the expression breaking the bell jar to underline the need to overcome the separations and oppositions that have characterized the approach to the built heritage, to recover a fully holistic dimension, based on the awareness of the evolution of the relationship between people and heritage.