A divine intervention exudes an elated aura in the niches and alcoves of an ancient church. The Baldacchino Of Chiesa Durita approached by DeD Studio aims to inscribe and restore the external and internal fabric of the church, retaining the original silhouette from a distance. The critical design fundamentals integrated openness from within and exposing key vistas into the landscape currently offered and framed by the ruined state.
A simple volume imbues the exterior, blending a series of observation terraces at different levels gazing onto the countryside. Injecting new vertical walls, they set back with glaze to sustain the village connection presently permitted around the church. The latest intervention defines a gentle character, appearing to open and set apart from the existing heavy walls of the ruin. Yet induces a distinct charm using white sculpted ceramic to form appropriately large columns framing and fluting the new structural outlines. The natural appearance of the ceramic iterates a dialogue with the surrounding masonry context, along with fluted and tubular sculpting, enhances the church’s verticality, re-invoking classical antiquity.
THE BALDACCHINO
The internal intervention takes inspiration from altering pieces, fonts, and the Baldacchino inhabited churches in Italy. Baldacchino invokes a striking personality and identity to each local church through vast ornamentation and reconciling the human scale to the building. Highly ornamental furniture culminates in the Baldacchino of Chiesa Diruta; in the nave, encrusting the new functions of a concert hall, contrasting in material and presence to that of the surrounding massive stone walls.
JOURNEY INTO THE LIGHT
Baldacchino typically inhabits a structure principally casing over the alter, often like a fabric. The design references the idea of wrapping both the stage and the audience, billowing and inviting people to look up as they take a stroll through the space. The designers highly perforated it to allow natural light and shadow to cast down and infiltrate the church, shimmering the existing walls to embellish as an ever-changing canvas of optical-shading effects.
The restoration of the church celebrates a vertical exploration. The Baldacchino, expressed as a series of ramps spiraling and circling the church, relishes people to explore the church at various levels and view and hear the performance from a wide vista, collectively or alone. The designers challenged the idea of listening to a concert as a static binary relationship and make a performance into an emotional journey to envision from multiple angles.
The Baldacchino Of Chiesa Durita references a religious history of the time inspired by the legendary journey of Dante rising into the heavens, spiraling up through the space out of the darkness into the light, as the music lashes and splashes around ascending you to the glazed roof at the top of the building.
Project Details
Project Name: The Baldacchino of Chiesa Durita
Architecture Firm: DeD Studio
Architect: Dave Edwards
Project Year: 2021
Project Location: Grottole, MT, Italy
Built / Unbuilt: Unbuilt
