Mnemotech Shelter was Rocco’s entry for an exhibit, curated by Luigi Ferrara, of Italian Canadian Architects at the Columbus Centre to help promote the talented architects of Italo-Canadian heritage.
The rendering by Gordon Grice, based on Rocco’s drawings, received the award “Architecture in Perspective” in 2014 and was part of a touring exhibit: Tokyo, Berlin, Ottawa.
In the statement:
“There on the mountain, the walls have stood in silence for decades. To reclaim j cor by an unhyphenated person fiercely Canadian and temperamentally Italian, is the challenge being undertaken by this participant. The physical context is a timeless town wall overlooking the Aterno River, with the Gran Saso at one end and the Maiela at the other. Its memories of a bygone era will interconnect with the accrued cultural milieu of his adopted country into an architectural statement of what has been and what can be.”
And more:
“The story of the lonely immigrant, landing on strange shores, from hill towns of a previous epocha is legendary. So much so, that it is fast disappearing from the realm of memory into that of myths.
The pain of the odyssey found solace in the sanctity of the foreign dwellings, leaving a patina of distress and success: from the flats adjacent to train stations and ports to sprawling amebas of suburbia and sky-reaching towers. A constant move, searching for… the mythic walls left behind.
For many comfort was hard to accept, regardless of the size of the shelter with its exotic room names, plastic-covered chesterfields and five-dollar prints of the Bay of Naples. For all, terms unknown of a simpler time formed a new language: ‘ju morgheg,’ ‘la jard,’ ‘ju uashrum.’ But the heart!!! For many, it remained ‘j cor.’
Hyphenated by others, with their Canadian-born children back they went, like tourists, to their place of birth. The legendary stone still stood, almost insignificant when compared to the pristineness of the casetta in Canada. Their pride based on success in a foreign land was dampened by similar improvements achieved by the paesani left behind. They too had new homes in the valleys and along the main roads, had the latest Fiat and wore Levis jeans. They too had left the old walls, and they too would talk of the mountains, the views, the aria fresca, and una buona polenta…”
Design Commentary
The design of this minimal shelter is based on the synthesis of the memories of a child acquired in the place of his origin, and the experience of
manhood acquired in his adopted land. In short, a physical biography of the person as an architect. The duality of place becomes the condition which generates the ‘modus operandi of the proposed architectural intervention, through transculturation.
The context is a timeless hill town shaped in the form of a triangle. As its apex stands the ruins of a tower, predating 90 BC. The ruins and local history recall this to be a settlement of many towers: hence its name Vicus Turritus, presently Vittorito located in central Italy. At the base of the triangle, the lost vestige of the once ‘habitable wall’ awaits the return of life echoing within its vaulted rooms.
A major part of the intervention takes the shape of a tower, a symbolic gateway to history and cultural accretions as one moves towards the multi-layered ruins of the abandoned urban fabric. It is from this side that one enters the residential wall, and eventually proceeds to the tower which has a southerly orientation with vistas of legends and faith in tomorrow. The open façade of the tower contrasts with the fortress-like enclosures of the ‘residential wall.’
The new interior of this wall takes its cue from the orthogonality of the tower. At the same time, it retains its partite and simplicity of structure. The ‘accidental’ organization of walls and spaces become a vessel for the new and at the same time leads one into the tower. The latter element in itself encloses the ‘accidental’ catwalks and platforms.
The existing spaces, (10 M by 6 M on 2 floors), will be dedicated to its traditional functions, eating, sleeping, and hygiene, whereas the tower (5.2 M square) will house a studio/library and observation terraces. A stair shaft connects the interior spaces culminating in a roof-top living room open to the sky.
The tower will be supported partly on the ruined walls of the lean-to-stable and by steel columns of visual and physical strength. From the ruins on the hill, the fifth elevation of the tower presents itself in the same quality and articulation as the other façades. A crack on the floor of the tower consciously made, will remind the occupant of the fear of earthquake, and the elation of survival. A fig tree will grow in the crack, as the wild ones grow amidst the ruins.
The glazed corner window, leaning as if to fall, will be held in place with metal straps, in the same manner, the ‘conciapiatti’ (dish-repair man) used to piece together broken dishes: life within minimal means and subconsciously ecologically minded.
On the terraces and protrusions in the walls, migratory birds and seeds will find rest and provide company as the swallows did every spring a long time ago. The fear of shadows on the old wall will be juxtaposed with the sunlight reflecting on the bright-coloured metal facades. Finally, this project has provided its author with a vehicle to revisit the past and reinforce his belief in the future.
