Restoration of San Francesco church

Universita IUAV di Venezia

Project idea

The project provides for the restoration of an old abandoned church, located in the town of Scigliano, which is located near Cosenza in the South of Italy; it is integrated in a extended regeneration program of the ancient “borghi” in the Calabrian hinterland.

The principal aim of the project is the regeneration of the ancient franciscan church, datable to the XVth century, to regive it to the country. Scigliano in fact is characterized by an extended religious heritage that give its the name of the “town of the 20 churches”.
Another important aim is the creation of a new cultural infrastructure which should be able to reactivate the town inserting it in the national cultural network using european or state funds.

Project description

The project provides for the restoration of the ancient masterpiece that will become a flexible gallery space; the inner set-up is composed by a system of alluminium elements fixed on the wooden trusses.
The exhibition itinerary continues outodoor thanks to the reinstatement of the old arch that connected the church and the lateral chapel in the past; today the project gives back the role of connection to the arch that bring the consumer to a little enclosed garden based on the Carlo Scarpa’s garden for the Biennale in Venice.
The project provides for the continuity of the itinerary from the garden to a new gallery backed aganist the church ancient wall; it ends with a panoramic viewpoint toward the valley like the extention of the the ancient lost chapel.
The area behind the cloister annexed, that now is reused like a retirement home, becomes a urban garden open to the valley. From the wooden arbor, that derives from the Shinkel lesson, a naturalistic itinerary starts from the Stornorum mount’ slopes where the project is located.

Technical information

The project is composed by different elements that requires different technological solutions.
Inside the church are insered some alluminium tubulars that create a flexible system composed by spot lights and wooden panels that should host some different type of exhibiltion. The restoration of the church needs also some interventions of structural consolidation for the refurbishing of the old arch like the insertion of basalt fiber.
The structure of the new gallery is made of an iron structure composed by columns and beams. The structure follows a regular scheme that derives from the ancient module of the lateral chapel The gallery is also characterized by a covering of concrete covering whose texture remember the local stone of the region.