► FORMENTONE SQUARE:
A OLD TOWN CENTER: DESIGN OF A EMPTY HEARTH OF THE CITY, Brescia (BS) Italy
The inspiring criteria of the design choices
There are places, moments of the city, next to which we pass for years, without these becoming truly a reference of the city, places that fail to take possession of our memory because of the indifference with which they propose themselves. The lack of the block and the evident wound evidenced by the "empty head" of the building have not allowed the reading of Largo Formentone as "historical place of the city". Not even the construction of the shelter in recent times has been able to soothe this wound. Moreover, "place of the city", in the sense of historical and social sedimentation, Largo Formentone never was; not only because of the incomplete implementation of demolitions at the end of the nineteenth century, but above all because of the lack of reconstruction in the 1930s that could have given the place a greater identity. It is as if a construction site had been crystallized to which unaware and passive generations of Brescians attended. The project, in the awareness of "reactivating" this site, does not presume to carry out the planned and unfinished work of the 1930s, but, taking note of the "historicity of the square", the most compassionate goal of mending the correspondence between the square and the vertical scenes, to restore, at least in part, the perceptive relationship between the empty space and the fronts of the buildings that overlook it: it is an attempt to mark an end to this now more than a hundred year old construction site. It is the desire to generate a relationship between the building and the immediate context, on the block scale, but also the determination to make it become a "place" on the scale of the city, in the search for the identity of this part of the square and perhaps, even if redirecting original intentions of the Fascist period, return an identity to the whole space between the Loggia and Via San Faustino.
The innovation of form through the language of historical heritage
The authoritativeness of the context and the awareness of the language of the historical architecture of Via San Faustino, have guided the choice to build an architecture that, even with a contemporary expression, is placed at the same level as the pre-existing architecture. The sedimentation of the medieval lot with its courtyards, spontaneous misalignments, the differences in the volumes and heights of the particles becomes the architectural language of which the new building appropriates, assembling these elements in a different logic of modernity, expressed also through the use of modern materials. It is the attempt of the "introduction of innovative forms while considering the methods of construction of the historic city". However, it is not an operation of mimesis of forms, but the reinterpretation of a codified linguistic heritage that does not detract from the perception and enhancement of adjacent historic buildings, allowing for a harmonious setting of the new building with the existing buildings in terms of form, colors and materials.
The architectural backdrop: an ephemeral architecture?
The initial inspiring criterion was that of the architectural backdrops, of the "two-dimensional" elements that reconstruct the block, but at the same time it is the concept of "mobile" scenes that have also suggested the concept of "built precariousness" (in this case more psychologically than physically) and still of reversibility of the intervention, in the awareness of the relative value - both in temporal terms and in terms of architectural value - of our intervention. While not wishing to hypothesize the terms for an ephemeral "long-term" architecture that has already had important experiences at European level and wanting to guarantee the economy of the proposed public investment, the expressive fallout of this inspiring concept on the designed architecture, it is certainly downbeat, helping to confront more serenely with the city and without competing with the "courtly" elements (the Loggia and its square).
The reversibility of the action and the ecology of the construction
It is our conviction that the proposed building must in any case be an addition immediately referable to its age, in terms of form and materials and, in this logic, a coherence is also necessary to the actuality of the constructive systems that compose it. The inspiring concept of the theatrical backdrop recalls the "reversibility" of the action, more satisfying the fearful respect of the historical sediment, but at the same time it offers a scenario of possible constructive systems in the direction of the "ecology" of the built, a sort of possible recyclability of the building and ultimately, in a longer term perspective, also of the square place. The potentialities of the “dry” building were therefore identified for the project, with an almost total reversibility with respect to traditional solutions; this, also guaranteeing excellent efficiency values.