THE “DIAGNOSTIC SURVEY”: A METHODOLOGY FOR THE KNOWLEDGE OF A COMPLEX ARCHITECTURAL PALIMPSEST

Abstract. A multidisciplinary approach that availing of the use of different techniques, such as topography, three-dimensional laser scans, photogrammetry, archival studies and stratigraphical analysis, can permit to define a whole methodology of analysis useful for the knowledge of complex architectures and for the identification of potential problems related to the static structure of the buildings, as well as the deepening of their evolutionary framework.

This outline was so applied for the analysis of the northern portion of the Castello Sforzesco of Milan (Torre Falconiera and Ponticella), where Sala delle Asse is located, allowing the acquisition of a corpus of information. The diagnostic detection operations carried out were therefore conducted with the primary purpose in order to verify the geometries of the buildings and to define an exhaustive framework of the equilibrium and imbalance of the factory.

The comparison between the documentary sources and the direct sources has made it possible to correlate the information to identify the construction phases and the subsequent interventions of restoration, rearrangement and to define new possible functions. The corpus of diagnostic-cognitive investigations conducted on the Torre Falconiera and contiguous spaces also allowed us to delineate the state of art in which the structure has come up to date and to highlight its critical points interpreting the phenomenology with awareness.