LA PIAZZA SPIRITO SANTO IN CATANIA: AL CONFINE TRA ANTICO E MODERNO

ABSTRACT. New urban design interventions for the Piazza Spirito Santo of Catania as projection of the relationship between the Ancient and the Modern – The articulated space of Piazza Spirito Santo is located in the heart of Catania, in connection with Via Etnea, the main street of the historic city, and in contiguity to Corso Sicilia, the modern directional axis of the 1950’s. However it remains a marginalized area: Piazza Spirito Santo is just a series of discarded spaces determinate by reconstruction plan of The Old San Berillo quarter. In this way, some historic palaces define a front of this area, while the others fronts are closed with buildings of the 60’s & 70’s. The S. Cristoforo Minore church marks the centre of the place, but is surrounded by vehicles that are parked there for the whole day: so the use of this square as a parking lot has became a typical scenery of a degraded district. Giving voice to the places through the project is the leitmotif of the Laboratorio UniRC: the architectural works aim to deepen dialogue strategies between the Old and the New in architecture. In fact it is necessary restoring lost values of the square in order to enhance a pedestrian use of it, to interpret the hidden identities of the city in its shape and understand its possible future forms for transforming the space.