SUBSTRATUM

Beneath the visible and tangible level of the layered urban fabric there is always an ancient one, difficult to perceive but powerful because it is not defenceless and static but active and dynamic. It possesses a generating force that expresses itself over time through what happens above the archaeological level. It is the Substratum.

Relating to such a complex and vast architectural landscape required the definition of a clear method and guiding principles of intervention from the very beginning. \r\nGiven the total closure of the Complex in relation to the surrounding urban environment, the first goal was to re-establish a relationship between the architecture and the city. \r\nThrough a series of pondered demolitions, the elliptical figure of the amphitheatre is brought back to light, the trace of which finds reverberation in the design of a public square that, taking into account the different heights of the site, fits into the space of tension and encounter between the Monastery of the Stella and the Ambulacrum of the Roman Amphitheatre. The new square becomes a filter between the architecture and the city and is a public space in which all the multiple histories of the place come together. \r\nThe second goal relates to the theme of the legibility of architecture. \r\nAs a result of the historical and architectural analysis carried out, a synthesis was made to identify the portions of the Palace Monastery that define its profound essence. The Three Churches, the semi-elliptical building constructed on the substructures of the Amphitheatre and the building erected on the minor axis are the substance of what has taken place over eighteen centuries of history. The rest is subtracted, demolished or transformed with punctual interventions to re-establish the internal connections between the parts. Connections that are entrusted to the linear building constructed on the minor axis of the Amphitheatre, a trait d'union between the elements of the complex, guaranteeing distribution to the entire architectural system. \r\nThe third and final goal was the clarity of the intervention, which leads to the theme of the forms used in the project, forms taken from the site, jagged and angular, a reinterpretation of the city's roofs. The plastic element of the roof expresses the dimension of fragmentation, rupture and fragility of the place, at the same time uniting the various parts of the project and defining the spatial quality of the interior spaces.