Relationship between figurative codes and new technologies in the 19th century: knowledge of the past in order to design future strategies

At the end of the 19th century the introduction of iron in the construction processes, generates a different way of thinking about architecture; triggering all that industrial production that has led to economic, political and social reversals. Therefore, knowing the ways and strategies adopted in the solution of the contrast between the classical tradition and the new prevailing construction technologies, through the analysis of the production of iron bridges in Europe and beyond (and of some other buildings), is a form of knowledge of the ways, regulated by the humanity, of the use of technology in order to modify the natural environment and then satisfy the needs of an increasingly complex social life. The iron bridges of the 19th century (described in treaties and manuals) become archetypes, whose images are not only a demonstration of the adopted techniques, but, also, of architectural organisms, of spatial and formal values and of their context. In light of such theoretical considerations, developed through an analysis of the treatises, manuals and construction courses, it was felt necessary to verify them in operational terms. The development of a digital model of a pier of the Pio Bridge 1862, made it possible to understand the relationship between geometry, construction and architecture in a given historical period. This strategy provides guidelines for a wide-ranging procedure geared towards selecting the criteria of conservation or reutilisation of buildings classed as examples of industrial archaeology