Tales from the sites: the firm’s films
A restoration site is rarely seen: behind the scaffolding sheets, for months, the work goes on without the city noticing. This is why the firm has chosen to tell it on film, with few words and many images, so that the progress of the works on the various sites can be followed. The collection «Video-racconti dai cantieri» is on the firm’s YouTube channel and in the Videos & lectures section.
Milan
«Riva e il Teatro alla Scala: a tutte le prime» tells of a relationship that has lasted since 1946, when the firm took part in the restoration of the theatre after the bombings of 1943, and continues with the ordinary and extraordinary maintenance of its monumental areas. The «Video documentario Palazzo Labus» follows the restoration of the frescoes, façades and roofs of the palazzo on corso Venezia, in collaboration with Dolce&Gabbana. A third film is dedicated to Sant’Ambrogio, a fourth to the restoration of via Majno, an example of conservation of the built environment.
Rome
«Palazzo Mignanelli Roma affreschi» documents the recovery of the decorations of the palazzo at the foot of Trinità dei Monti, within the great restoration of Piazza di Spagna and Piazza Mignanelli. «Riva e i Fori Imperiali. Eccellenza italiana 2020» shows the preliminary works of disinfestation, safety measures and archaeological cleaning along the Via Sacra, in the Roman Forum, with the Parco archeologico del Colosseo.
The lake and Piedmont
«Riva e il restauro di Villa Frascoli» returns to Lake Maggiore, at Laveno-Mombello, where the firm started in 1920: the complete recovery of an abandoned villa, façades and decorations included. The «Video restauro Palazzo dei Musei Varallo Sesia» closes the series in Valsesia.
They are short tales, for those who want to see restoration while it happens and not only once the work is done. They show what usually stays hidden behind the sheets: cleaning carried out in small portions, consolidation, filling, the investigations that precede every choice. And above all they show the people, restorers, technicians and site managers, who take care of a building for months before giving it back to the city.