The asylum of Santa Maria di Collemaggio rises in a park of 19 hectares, consisting of 9 independent pavilions, built between 1903 and 1915 according to the project of the engineer Guido Rimini. The complex is part of over 70 mental institutions, built in Italy at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which still represent a unique and significant historical, social and architectural heritage. The old mental hospitals were conceived as small utopian "citadels", microcosms in which the patient felt neither oppressed nor segregated, but rather had the impression of being part of a fragment of a real city, where family life was simulated and in some cases working life was allowed, with which patients found their physical and mental balance in a natural environment rich in vegetation, hygiene and healthiness. With the enactment of the Basaglia Law, in 1978 the slow process of closing and abandoning these structures began, except for a few cases of reconversion, in which, however, attempts at re-functionalization were not always very sensitive with respect to the social value that always marks these places of pain and segregation. Today, however, the reconsideration and restoration of the heavy social and cultural role of these places is essential and of fundamental importance, preserving the architectural artifacts to transmit their meaning with design hypotheses able to bring out values of this heritage. From these considerations takes place the design hypothesis of re-functionalization of the L'Aquila insane asylum, only partly converted to a health post after the closure in 1980 and completely abandoned following the 2009 earthquake. Aware that the preservation of architectural artifacts cannot be separated from its correct re-functionalization, the contribution, starting from the analysis of existing buildings and their state of preservation, proposes some strategies of re-use of spaces, linked to the educational and socio-sanitary value, that the structure has always embodied, since its foundation.
Between abandonments and reuses. Recovery strategies of disused architectural heritage: from the analysis to the re-functionalization project of the farmer Santa Maria Asylum of Collemaggio
verazzo, clara
2021-01-01
Abstract
The asylum of Santa Maria di Collemaggio rises in a park of 19 hectares, consisting of 9 independent pavilions, built between 1903 and 1915 according to the project of the engineer Guido Rimini. The complex is part of over 70 mental institutions, built in Italy at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which still represent a unique and significant historical, social and architectural heritage. The old mental hospitals were conceived as small utopian "citadels", microcosms in which the patient felt neither oppressed nor segregated, but rather had the impression of being part of a fragment of a real city, where family life was simulated and in some cases working life was allowed, with which patients found their physical and mental balance in a natural environment rich in vegetation, hygiene and healthiness. With the enactment of the Basaglia Law, in 1978 the slow process of closing and abandoning these structures began, except for a few cases of reconversion, in which, however, attempts at re-functionalization were not always very sensitive with respect to the social value that always marks these places of pain and segregation. Today, however, the reconsideration and restoration of the heavy social and cultural role of these places is essential and of fundamental importance, preserving the architectural artifacts to transmit their meaning with design hypotheses able to bring out values of this heritage. From these considerations takes place the design hypothesis of re-functionalization of the L'Aquila insane asylum, only partly converted to a health post after the closure in 1980 and completely abandoned following the 2009 earthquake. Aware that the preservation of architectural artifacts cannot be separated from its correct re-functionalization, the contribution, starting from the analysis of existing buildings and their state of preservation, proposes some strategies of re-use of spaces, linked to the educational and socio-sanitary value, that the structure has always embodied, since its foundation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
