Architetture 2013/2017

A Selection of Contemporary Architecture from the Palermo Area

The “Architetture 2013/2017” exhibition, promoted by the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Palermo, was dedicated to showcasing contemporary architectural production developed in recent years by professionals working throughout the Palermo area.

Held from 23 April to 4 May 2018 in the exhibition halls of the Order of Architects’ headquarters in Palermo, the exhibition presented 80 projects, designed either individually or collaboratively by approximately 40 architects, offering an overview of the diverse approaches, themes and design methodologies that characterize contemporary architectural practice in the area.

The initiative was conceived with the aim of bringing greater visibility to a body of work that is often known primarily within the professional community, while also contributing to the creation of a documentary archive of contemporary architecture in the local area. The exhibition therefore provided an opportunity for comparison and discussion between different architectural experiences, united by their attention to the relationship between architecture, the city, the landscape and the transformation of the existing built heritage.

The Curcio Architettura Studio Project

As part of the exhibition, the reconstruction and architectural transformation of a multifunctional building designed to accommodate shops, offices and residential units was presented. The building is located at the Madonnuzza junction, on Via della Repubblica, in the municipality of Petralia Soprana, in the Madonie area of Sicily.

The project, initiated in 2013, originated from the need to intervene on an old warehouse that was in particularly poor structural and architectural condition. Rather than simply replacing the existing building, the project viewed its transformation as an opportunity to establish a new relationship between architecture and urban space, restoring architectural quality to a place lacking adequate collective spaces.

One of the central aspects of the project concerns its relationship with the space in front of the building. The lack of public spaces in the Madonnuzza area led to the decision to conceive the forecourt as a kind of urban square, capable of providing a place for meeting, resting and social interaction. To reinforce this collective dimension, the project included a fountain-bench with a reflecting pool, clad in red porphyry, conceived as an element of urban furniture and as an additional focal point for social interaction.

Particular attention was devoted to the façade facing the square. The façade is conceived as a genuine public urban frontage, avoiding a fragmented domestic architectural language characterized by balconies and individual windows. Instead, it adopts a unified composition in which the relationship between light and shadow becomes one of the defining characteristics of the architecture.

The loggia contributes to this overall architectural expression, maintaining a simple and unified relationship with the square while emphasizing the entrance to the stairwell. The main façade, oriented towards south-east, played a decisive role both in defining the architectural composition and in establishing a balanced relationship with the distinctive natural light conditions of the site.

The other façades establish a more direct relationship with the surrounding domestic architecture, incorporating one of the recurring elements of the local built environment: projecting balconies, reinterpreted within the new architectural composition.

The vertical circulation system also plays a significant role in the project. The staircase was redesigned with a transverse configuration in order to create a visual connection between the public space in front of the building, to the south-east, and the historic stone road on the north-west side. The internal circulation thus becomes an integral part of the building’s relationship with its surroundings, contributing to a spatial and visual continuity between the different parts of the settlement.

The project also incorporates principles of energy efficiency, particularly through the use of a ventilated façade system, a significant solution within the climatic context of the Madonie mountains, aimed at improving the thermal performance of the building envelope and the comfort of the interior spaces.

The intervention can therefore be understood as an operation of regeneration of an existing building, in which architectural, urban and energy-performance considerations converge to establish a new identity for a place characterized by the scarcity of collective spaces.

Participation in the “Architetture 2013/2017” exhibition represented an important opportunity for Curcio Architettura Studio to share and discuss its design approach within the wider context of contemporary architecture in the Province of Palermo.

Project: Multifunctional Building – Shops, Offices and Residential Units
Location: Bivio Madonnuzza, Via della Repubblica Nos. 2–4, Petralia Soprana (PA), Italy
Construction start: 2013
Architect and Works Director: Salvatore Curcio
Client: Ital System S.r.l., Petralia Sottana, Italy