Auditorium in the Church of Santa Teresa d’Avila
Cosenza, Italy
TITLE
Restoration and conversion into a Cultural Center of the Church of Santa Teresa d’Avila
CLIENT
Cosenza Province – Cosenza Historical Center
TYPE OF INTERVENTION
Restoration and conversion
STATE
In progress
The Church of Santa Teresa d’Avila is part of a more important complex in the historic center of Cosenza, originally hosting the convent of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, and today home to the “Mancini – Tommasi” Higher Education Institute of Cosenza. The construction of the complex was long and was the subject of numerous and successive works, the starting date dates back to around 1645. The Church has a Latin cross plan, with two chapels on each side before the transept and a quadrangular apse.
The building was equipped with a dome damaged by the earthquake and collapsed in 1856 when the drum and a bell tower located to the right of the facade were demolished.
The gardens created in the chapels open up to unpredictable and impactful architectural scenarios
The interior of the church was decorated with Baroque frames, capitals and friezes. What remains today of the ancient Baroque church are the ruins of what was not destroyed during the earthquake of 1854, since then the church has not been restored, the surviving rooms, practically abandoned, were later exploited for the most varied uses.
The redevelopment and conversion project starts from the desire to insert new functions within the walls of the church, freeing them from the superstructures and additions that have been added to the basic structure over time.
The proposed restoration process therefore begins from the assumption that the historic building, as it is now, represents an element of denunciation of history that must be preserved and enhanced.
Bringing the church building back to life as a hall, a meeting and gathering point, an opportunity for exchange, together with the concept of the Church as a community that recognizes and focuses on rediscovering its own identity, is the objective behind the intervention. The historic element that includes the new within itself, denouncing the new functional layer as an opportunity for mutual redevelopment.
The walls can become the massive shell for the new light structures inside it and intimately interconnected to them by visual, emotional and structural relationships. The ground plan enhances the classic Latin cross layout of Jesuit-style churches, with a single central nave and side chapels, where the larger chapels act as a transept in opposition to the apse behind the altar.
The new functional scheme will fully respect the original layout, introducing new systems and new relationships managed by an endoskeleton structurally dependent on the existing massive walls and lightweight connection systems.
The central nave will thus house the central body of the Auditorium, where the hall is remodeled and re-founded on the central axis of the building, with a focus on the platform positioned at the intersection between the larger chapels and the apse. Precisely these three spaces (main chapels and apse), so representative in their ancient liturgical functions, are strengthened in their spatial and formal development by three natural spaces, with the introduction of tree species, and made three wells of light and air, becoming real connective elements between the external ecosystem, but also strengthening and declaring the Latin cross distribution of the ancient church. The complex value of the dialogue between new functions and the imaginative charm of historical finds, generates a complex game of contrasts such as to make this place an opportunity for recovery but also for growth and knowledge, as well as contact and recognizability of a historical path in which the entire community can reflect itself.
Credits
DESIGN ARCHITECTS Guendalina Salimei – Tstudio
MEP AI Engineering s.r.l. e AI Studio – Enzio Bestazzi, Pier Paolo Valle
CONSULTANT STRUCTURAL Marte s.r.l. – Domenico Amendola
GEOLOGIST Massimiliano Ferrari
CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION Guendalina Salimei – Tstudio
3D Views
TStudio
Auditorium in the Church of Santa Teresa d’Avila
Cosenza, Italy
TITLE
Restoration and conversion into a Cultural Center of the Church of Santa Teresa d’Avila
CLIENT
Cosenza Province – Cosenza Historical Center
TYPE OF INTERVENTION
Restoration and conversion
STATE
In progress
The Church of Santa Teresa d’Avila is part of a more important complex in the historic center of Cosenza, originally hosting the convent of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, and today home to the “Mancini – Tommasi” Higher Education Institute of Cosenza. The construction of the complex was long and was the subject of numerous and successive works, the starting date dates back to around 1645. The Church has a Latin cross plan, with two chapels on each side before the transept and a quadrangular apse.
The building was equipped with a dome damaged by the earthquake and collapsed in 1856 when the drum and a bell tower located to the right of the facade were demolished.
The gardens created in the chapels open up to unpredictable and impactful architectural scenarios
The interior of the church was decorated with Baroque frames, capitals and friezes. What remains today of the ancient Baroque church are the ruins of what was not destroyed during the earthquake of 1854, since then the church has not been restored, the surviving rooms, practically abandoned, were later exploited for the most varied uses.
The redevelopment and conversion project starts from the desire to insert new functions within the walls of the church, freeing them from the superstructures and additions that have been added to the basic structure over time.
The proposed restoration process therefore begins from the assumption that the historic building, as it is now, represents an element of denunciation of history that must be preserved and enhanced.
Bringing the church building back to life as a hall, a meeting and gathering point, an opportunity for exchange, together with the concept of the Church as a community that recognizes and focuses on rediscovering its own identity, is the objective behind the intervention. The historic element that includes the new within itself, denouncing the new functional layer as an opportunity for mutual redevelopment.
The walls can become the massive shell for the new light structures inside it and intimately interconnected to them by visual, emotional and structural relationships. The ground plan enhances the classic Latin cross layout of Jesuit-style churches, with a single central nave and side chapels, where the larger chapels act as a transept in opposition to the apse behind the altar.
The new functional scheme will fully respect the original layout, introducing new systems and new relationships managed by an endoskeleton structurally dependent on the existing massive walls and lightweight connection systems.
The central nave will thus house the central body of the Auditorium, where the hall is remodeled and re-founded on the central axis of the building, with a focus on the platform positioned at the intersection between the larger chapels and the apse. Precisely these three spaces (main chapels and apse), so representative in their ancient liturgical functions, are strengthened in their spatial and formal development by three natural spaces, with the introduction of tree species, and made three wells of light and air, becoming real connective elements between the external ecosystem, but also strengthening and declaring the Latin cross distribution of the ancient church.
The complex value of the dialogue between new functions and the imaginative charm of historical finds, generates a complex game of contrasts such as to make this place an opportunity for recovery but also for growth and knowledge, as well as contact and recognizability of a historical path in which the entire community can reflect itself.
The central nave will thus house the central body of the Auditorium, where the hall is remodeled and re-founded on the central axis of the building, with a focus on the platform positioned at the intersection between the larger chapels and the apse. Precisely these three spaces (main chapels and apse), so representative in their ancient liturgical functions, are strengthened in their spatial and formal development by three natural spaces, with the introduction of tree species, and made three wells of light and air, becoming real connective elements between the external ecosystem, but also strengthening and declaring the Latin cross distribution of the ancient church.
The complex value of the dialogue between new functions and the imaginative charm of historical finds, generates a complex game of contrasts such as to make this place an opportunity for recovery but also for growth and knowledge, as well as contact and recognizability of a historical path in which the entire community can reflect itself.
Credits
DESIGN ARCHITECTS Guendalina Salimei – Tstudio
MEP AI Engineering s.r.l. e AI Studio – Enzio Bestazzi, Pier Paolo Valle
CONSULTANT STRUCTURAL Marte s.r.l. – Domenico Amendola
GEOLOGIST Massimiliano Ferrari
CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION Guendalina Salimei – Tstudio
3D Views
TStudio