Our research deals with the analysis, the knowledge and revaluation of the sites and buildings of historical architectural and landscape interest, with the aim to promote their conservation and revaluation through proposals for restoring, recovering  and/or reusing them inside a process of urban and territorial revaluation.
The activity of ARCH_IN consists of two fundamentals moments:

• the knowledge, that is the analysis of the present state of sites or buildings, from an historical, architectural, functional and environmental perspective.  That category includes also activities such as censing and defining the position of such sites.

• The project, which consists in the proposal of intervention aiming at revaluating the object of study.
 
Knowledge
The activity of knowledge consists in the historical, architectural, documentary analysis (i.e. bibliographical, cartographic, archivist, photographic, …) and on the spot (relief, filing, census,…) aiming to the project of recovery and reuse.
We have also started a series of initiatives among which:
• The census of the industrial  buildings and sites of historical architectural and technological interest in Liguria, with the agreement of the Soprintendenza for the Architectural Heritage, for the Ligurian Landscape and the
Regional Management for the cultural and landscape heritage.
• The census of the Ligurian buildings and sites of interest for cultural and modern tourism with the
agreement of the Tourism Authorities in Liguria, Lombardia, Piemonte, Emilia Romagna and with Triennale di Milano
• The filing of industrial and harbour sites and buildings of industrial archaeological interest in Liguria, in agreement with Datasiel (Liguria Region).
 
Project
The activity of ARCH_IN, on the basis of the data gathered and the analyses carried on in the phasis of knowledge, consists in studies for revaluation – spotting criteria and guide-lines for the project – and in checking them by means of feasibility projects. They deal above all with structures either dismissed or in bad state of conservation, with the aim to salvage and/or suitably reuse them. In the many projects made in the Laboratory we can distinguish four categories/main ways of intervention:
• Restoration, salvage, and reuse: in a structure salvaged for reuse, the original framework must be respected, but the parts added and the elements of the building must be eliminated (e.g. cast-iron Ansaldo Factories - Genoa Multedo)
• Reintegration and reuse: the important parts of a structure must be respected, only some changes are allowed if necessary for  its reuse (e.g. Camandone Barracks – Diano Castello Imperia)
• Revaluation: a project made ex novo must respect the historical memory  of the places (e. g. the Bozi at
Sarzana - La Spezia)
• Revaluation: the structure, still in use, must be kept as it is, and revaluated with suitable interventions (ERG, at Priolo Gargallo – Siracusa)
A more detailed description of the above projects can be found in the project section which contains hypothesis of projects presented by ARCH_IN, many of which were formulated in agreement with public or private companies.