LOCATION: Rome, Italy

CLIENT: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising

YEAR: 2013-2016

TEAM:

Federica Caccavale, Alessandro Casadei, Paolo Pineschi
Mabel Aguerre, Angel Almendariz Fernandez, Blanca Bea Cirauqui, Laura Di Dario, Maria Gerardi, Graziano Giancaterina, Marta Hrvatin, Ainhoa Igerategi Etxeberria, Ernesto Mayerà, Giacomo Marafini, Elisa Mazzola, Silvia Pecci, Michele Russo, Francesca Spadaccino

| Structural Engineering: Proges Engineering
| Building services engineering and fire strategy: PTC Engineering
| Botanical consultant: Simone Amantia Scudieri
| Archaeologist: Daniele Putortì

Images by Alberto Novelli

The project intervenes on an historical building, a 5 storey “palazzo” in a residential area in a North-Western district of Rome, by one of the most famous Art Nouveau Italian architects, Gino Coppede’. The construction included an Art-Nouveau exotic garden, dilapidated after having been neglected for many years.

The project is based on a strong separation between historical building, restored and brought back to the original state as possible, and new construction. This approach, that avoids ambiguous contaminations between the pre-existing elements and the new ones, is fully represented in the small church realized as a building within the building, an ark made of wooden arches wrapping the space (12 – in the number of the Apostles).

The old stairs have been demolished and replaced by a new wooden sculptural stairs that connects all levels and encourages to visit the building, up to the scenic terrace at the fourth floor that oversees the entire city.