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Contemporary architects working on Brazilian built heritage over the last thirty years have attempted to remove the ideological weight of the modern concept of "restoration". These architects feel free to intervene without adopting a rigorous scientific approach. Certainly, also in Brazil the attention to authenticity and the value of memory underpin the interest in monuments. However, the expectations of contemporary society for technological innovation and spectacular effects in architecture seem to be dominant also in Brazil. The design of modern additions in historic buildings has thus become systematic moving away from the guidelines of the Venice Charter (1964). In this international document it is suggested that architectural heritage should be preserved rather than restored, since the restoration involves, even in the cases of minimal intervention, the modification of the original document. For the analysis of this phenomenon, common throughout many countries, a significant selection of projects, realised between 1980 and 2010 on buildings of historical and cultural value, was conducted. It results, that starting from the 1908s of the 20th Century, there is an increase of creative interventions on built heritage. It is likely that behind this practice are the weakening of the institutions responsible for the protection of the national heritage and the decentralization of the competent federal bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]