REUSE THE FALLEN CHURCH CHIESA DIRUTA

Project description:

Could we bring back to life one of the most important religious buildings of Southern Italy?

In our project we tried to carefully regenerate architectural structure of the church, as well as reorganize an interior space by choosing not a traditional way of preparing design.  This project was created with the intent to preserve the link between architecture and nature throughout the time.

The idea consists of regenerating the space and preserving the spirit of the place of the Italian town. We chose the method of devizualization of the new architecture, using translucent and reflective planars. They complete the look of the church, by standing in the background and giving all the attention to the authentic church. Thus, the new construction become a "ghost building" because of using glass to create the effect of dissolving into space, and filling the pause in the context of the urban space. All the main ruined parts - the roof, the walls, vaults, and arches became visible again but now only in the glass and copper to show the contrast of old and new but in the same time to save the essence of “genius loci”.  

The interior design aligns with an exterior, by using glass as a main material we tried to avoid conglomeration of the constructions and gangways. The main feature of the redevelopment was a radical change in the orientation of functional spaces. For a long period of time we had been thinking about how to accommodate everything in the most convenient way and finally went from the method "how it cannot be".  In this version, the main entrance is organized from the apse, and the narthex is given to the artist rooms. The existence abundance of greenery in the interior shows that nature always prevails over the people creations, but at the same time it forms the dynamic of the  interior and give us a sense of calm. All in all our project of regeneration of the fallen church is based on the method of devizualization of the new structures and on the thematic incorporation of the architecture and nature to save the essence of “genius loci”.

Student name: Alena Kokueva, Silviya Al Ubed

Location: Italia, Grottole, Matera

Ig account: @art_in_moving, @sel_obed @anc.atelier

Year: 2021