"Re-using Italy"

is an exceptional proposal in line with the latest advances in knowledge and action for World Heritage sites. One of its main virtues is to strongly involve the environment in which this Heritage is located, from the physical, social, cultural and economic points of view.

Grottole is a small but magical town located in the deep south of Italy. Its church of San Luca and San Giuliano, which is in ruins, is one of its main monumental icons. The proposal to make it come to life again as a new cultural and social space must involve the entire community and its landscape. All functional (accessibility, parking), cultural (music, exhibitions and the cultural heritage of the town) and landscape (the environment in general, its symbols and landscape values) aspects are needed to recreate the town as a whole, regarding the triggering action of reusing the church.

The intervention must then be promoted as a new functional and visual icon of the town, framed within a set where other icons (the Castles, the Main Cathedral and other churches) and the tourist and landscape routes regenerate not only the use of the church but also the town.

"How can the church be reused?"

• Stemming from the shape of the old building itself: all its walls and iconic elements that contrast with the emptiness resulting from the collapses have been preserved. We propose a “HIGH TECH” language that dialectically incorporates the new and the old, what is heavy and what is light, generating a new high-tech safe space, without any new risks in the event of an earthquake. The recovery of the old and the articulated insertion of a lighter future.

• Stemming from the articulation of the building with the environment: enhancing both entrances, associated with the interior of Grottole using Via Garibaldi and another through the Viale de la Resistencia which is of vehicular nature, associated with a new public space, which highlights the values of the landscape and circuits in the interface with the rural landscape. Along the interior of the building, both entrances can be interconnected between themselves, either way. Besides, the surrounding streets and passages are livened, such as the narrow passage to the south that makes it possible to go along from Via Garibaldi to Via de la Resistencia through stairs and small urban spaces. In the public spaces that come up when the previously mentioned streets interact –especially that of the new Plaza San Luca e Giuliano on the Via de la Resistencia– quality and design improvements can be anticipated so as to create 

scenarios for urban happenings or cultural experiences, such as the theatre, music or exhibitions among others. Overall, four new stage spaces would come up, which can equally be used in simultaneous performances, separately or for a single show that runs from one stage to the other, even passing through the interior spaces. As a consequence, the building, the city and the environment become one.

• Stemming from the monumental conception of the reuse of the town: generating a large elevated square from the main public entrance, with valorisation of outdoor activities and intense landscape figuration, with which the town as a whole gains comprehensive heritage meaning, and tells us about built heritage, cultural heritage, social heritage and tourist heritage.

• The 6-level vertical stratification proposed for the requested reuse and its vertical consequences propose the integration of local social uses and regional cultural uses in different premises or spaces (the museum, the gift shop, halls, viewpoints, resting places and “ristoro” places), complete the formulation of the new proposed meanings, ranging from the classic monument of conservation to the landscape reuse and integration with the society, the landscape and history.

The system and the icon

 The GCC and its accessibility

Providing broad and regional social and cultural values requires reviewing the system of accessibility to the main icon that is the Church. In this way, the interior circuit (within the town) is reappraised. It allows access to the main entrance of the principal events hall, the lookout tower, etc., and that access is connected to several small parking spots, which are walked along by pedestrians. At the same time, the external route of the town is appraised with great scenic power. It runs from the entrance of most public uses. From there, a new place in the town appears: the semi-pedestrian square for outdoor events. From that square, there is access to the main hall, a new space proposed that we believe is important to emerge in Grottole, a new museum of the city or museum of the "contadino".

The GCC  as part of a system of monuments

The church thus becomes a nodal point in a system of movements in the town that multiplies its delicate masterpieces. However, the main parking lot in the square itself in front of the church is characterised as the main focus of the system. It is a milestone, the centre and starting point and finish point of tours. This square recalls the deep heritage of civic spaces throughout Italy and its characteristic connection with a square open to everybody. The fact that this square reminds us of the beauty and immensity of the natural landscape is the other attribute that taking the monument to the community as a comprehensive system.

Appraisal of the public space and the civic uses

For these cities, public spaces are the scenes of meetings, processions, parties, etc. The new square makes a contribution that is considered essential, not only because of its association with the great Italian heritage of civic squares to religious settings, but also because of the emergence of a novel large civic space, of which Grottole is devoid. This space is expanded and integrated into the Church in a more direct way, cutting off the traffic of