Restauro e riqualificazione del Palazzo. Il progetto di Carlo Mezzetti.

The design for the architectural and urban upgrading of the Palazzo de'Mayo in Chieti documents the cultural work carried out on the historical building bought by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Chieti to house its new offices, conceived from the outset as having an interactive relationship with the city. These considerations were the basis of the project, which began in 2004 with the purchase of the building by the Fondazione and continued with the restoration designed in 2007 by Carlo Mezzetti, lecturer at the Department of Architecture in Pescara, who died prematurely in the final stages of the work. The restoration design was based on graphic-documentary research and a survey, which was the essential means of understanding the complex structure of the building and provided the design directions for its conversion within the urban context. It was carried out according to a logic that considered the new requirements of function and use and its historical values. The latter required conservative decisions that would not alter the aesthetic and structural layout of the original architectural forms. The work initially entailed removal of the alterations and additions that had created a series of ???anomalies??? accumulated during the various stratifications of the building, such as the alterations to the original ashlar work and the work on the courtyards and internal spaces, recovered by precise conservative restoration works. The repairs were defined by functional units following the schema of the building???s constituent sections, taking into account the cited design criteria and the different functions the architectural complex was intended to fulfil. The basement level of the main body on Corso Marrucino houses a conference room in a large vaulted space facing the internal garden. The vertical connections are provided by an elliptical metal staircase that, wedged between the internal rooms towards the Vico San Domenico, connects the three floors of the building. A large space on the ground floor was turned into a library, divided into different areas intended for filing cabinets, bookshelves, video library and multimedia and reading room. The garden at the back is not only decorative but also has a circular cavea complete with terraces for holding open air cultural events and concerts. The first floor contains the administrative and management offices along with rooms for temporary art exhibitions. The second floor houses a museum, reached by the 18th-century stairway of honour, and a conference room set up in the reception hall. Finally, the roof terrace, which offers a panoramic view of the city and its surrounds, has a cafe-bar connected to the art gallery below. In summary, the main points of the work were the insertion of a new ceremonial stairway and the repair of the original access to the building from Corso Marrucino through the mannerist doorway in the inner courtyard, now covered with a transparent structure and turned into an atrium-gallery. The staircase in particular is a modern representation of the 18th-century work, in which the big stairway was the hub of the composition. Similarly, after careful study of the spaces, the designer of the current work introduced the elliptical metal staircase, specifically intended to simplify the distribution of the new spaces compared to the previous structures. The building rises pivoting around three central pilasters, hinged by a grid system, and two lateral ones positioned to support the entire length of the staircase. The drawings allow the overall design and the care dedicated to each individual architectural detail to be understood through the axonometric cross-sections and numerous executive details.