Reuse the Abbey Santa Maria del Piano

Pozzaglia Sabina, Italy

The proposed architectural graft has two purposes: the first, to design the areas required by the tender, adapting them to the pre- existing historical organism, articulating new internal forms so as to play with light and define internal spaces that evoke a possible relationship with one’s spirit. The second purpose, to pursue a character of mystery with respect to the pre-existence, in fact the reading of this is fragmented and for some portions voluntarily hidden, marking a sense of loss that arises from the idea that the past cannot always be revealed. It is not always possible to reconstruct the lives of people and the human events that took place inside a building.
This occurs through the insertion in the nave of the Abbey of a covering that follows the perimeter of the church with an offset towards the inside, delineating a detachment from the walls. In this detachment a glass covering will be arranged so as to allow optimal lighting and make the entire internal walking surface usable. The roof is characterized by three skylights that use light as an emotional element and mark the spatial succession of the interior where workshops, meditation, yoga, etc… can be organized. This single large space can be divided into three areas with the use of sliding panels hidden in correspondence of the columns of the load-bearing structure, the distribution space will take place in relation to the covered area with the glass roofing.