Antonius Schipp
La faglia - luogo della accoglienza. RWTH Aachen (Germany).
PALAZZO MAIELLO-LAEZZA | AFRAGOLA
Erected in 1750 as a family palace, the building once embodied social prestige and architectural refinement. Political upheaval, economic decline, and the devastating earthquake of the 1980s left it abandoned and scarred. Today, only fragments endure: the façade, the gateway, the central staircase, the courtyard with its loggias, and vast vaulted cellars beneath the ground.
The project embraces these scars rather than concealing them. Broken edges become points of departure; new spaces grow organically from old fractures. The architectural language of the past is retained, yet distilled and abstracted to speak in a contemporary voice. Old and new, destruction and renewal, are not opposites but complementary forces in dialogue.
Set in Afragola — a city often dismissed as marginal yet alive with creativity and hospitality — the palace is reimagined as an academic retreat: a place of research, exchange, and education. Its transformation is both an act of preservation and a gesture of renewal, binding history to future.
The journey begins at the archway, leading into a courtyard framed by loggias. Shops, reception, and a bar open to visitors; above, guestrooms overlook the square. Beyond lies a garden of roses and citrus trees, bordered by colonnades with niches for gathering and display. This space of calm and contemplation serves as passage toward the new building.
Opposite the historic palace, the new structure continues the rhythm of the old while abstracting it for the present. Within, conference halls provide spaces to recognize, debate, and share knowledge.
At the heart stands the chapel, both origin and conclusion. Its descent and solemn presence open a place of reflection and transcendence, turning the entire ensemble into a threshold between ruin and renewal, memory and possibility.
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