Caffè Nazionale

Located in Arzignano, Northern Italy, the Caffè Nazionale reconnects with the city through the 19th-century colonnade of the City Hall. The restoration transforms the historic venue into a dynamic sequence of spaces linking the square, the colonnade, and the inner courtyard. A vibrant mosaic of fragments of memory and original spatial devices reveals layers of history and contemporary reinterpretation. AMAA, founded by Marcello Galiotto and Alessandra Rampazzo, orchestrated the project as a collaborative intervention involving artists, materials, and craftsmanship.

The Caffè Nazionale project engages with the historical traces of Arzignano, generating a dialogue between past and present through theatrical spatial sequences. The main hall, with its mosaic floor and coffered ceiling, becomes a stage where memory and material coexist. The design highlights the layered nature of time, connecting the square and the birch garden through a visual and physical axis. Each element — from the burnished iron pivot door to the perforated steel wall illuminated by artist Stefan Marx’s posters — contributes to the narrative of discovery and transformation. AMAA’s approach was guided by uncovering and preserving, removing incongruous additions to reveal the building’s essence. The intervention unfolds as a living process, where incompleteness and openness reflect the studio’s research into temporality, memory, and the unfinished.

A year and a half of work produced a delicate restoration combining recovered historical layers with new architectural elements. Stainless steel sheets, burnished iron, serpentine marble, and multilayered wood define the space, balanced by exposed fragments that reveal the temporality of construction. The furniture, custom-designed with artist Nero/Alessandro Neretti, integrates seamlessly with the structure. The restoration preserved the worn, imperfect textures of the original decorations, enhancing their raw materiality. Sustainability lies in reuse, consolidation, and the visible authenticity of construction techniques. The project acknowledges time as a constructive tool, turning maintenance into an act of continuity. Caffè Nazionale stands as a layered, evolving work embracing environmental, structural, and cost awareness.