The Italian Industrial Heritage of Arms Factories. Perspectives for Sustainable Conservation and Reuse

The contribution is part of a wider research focused on the study of Italian industrial war architectures, which, at the end of the seventeenth century lived a thriving season with the production of firearms. As a result of the changed necessity and their consequent disuse, this vast military-industrial heritage, now abandoned and still scarcely investigated, is in an advanced state of decay or, in most cases, in a total state of neglect. Therefore, the research deals with the systematic study of these assets concerning the historical-territorial context of belonging, highlighting the typological, productive, and stylistic peculiarities as well as the intangible values still very often denied. Starting from the awareness of their state of contemporary use - or not use -, the conversion projects already carried out or in progress have been investigated to outline guidelines for the sustainable conservation, energy transition, and reuse of these military factories.