Ironies of Pelt
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Design experiment of the Bust and Pelt research
in collaboration with : arch. Elisa C. Cattaneo and arch. Cherubino Gambardella
year : 2019
location : Naples, Italy
Connected to the research about the Bust and The Pelt, we imagined with the participation of the arch. Cherubino Gambardella a provocative refurbishment of two of the abandoned/reused churches of Naples, surveyed during the research.
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In Theaetetus, Plato defines it methodology as maieutica, which is the art of the midwife. Opposite to the art of rhetoric and persuasion, Socrates compared the dialectic to the work of the midwife: as her, he tries to “ bring out” definitions implicit in the pupils’ beliefs; the architectural experiments related to these two churches follow the same approach: learning from the application and methodology of Bust and Pelt, to bring out the experiments, following a logic of continuous paradox between the two entities.
The two holy spaces turn themselves into the experiment ground to study the relations between the Bust, already existing, monumental and abandoned, and the Pelt, which has never been allowed to proliferate into the Bust. According to the differences found during the analysis of the Pelt and the Bust, the experiment have chose to work with the technical-constructive elements of Pelt, as it rises that it was the macro-category capable of reunite the Bust with the Pelt, the infrastructure with the spontaneity.
SANTA MARIA AL MONTE DEI POVERI
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The church of Santa Maria al monte dei poveri becomes in this way the space where it is possible to experiment the logic of composition and ontology of the Pelt and tries to design a series of devices capable of reactivating the dialogue with the abandoned Bust. As this church has been categorised as a Bust > Pelt, the church is imagined as a new space hosting element of Pelt, which does not modify its formal nature, but it communicates with it entirely transforming the space. According to the luminogenic characteristics of the church, the new Pelt is given by a composition of elements that appropriate the natural light in order to modify the visual, and generally sensorial, perception of the interiors, with a continuous play of opening and closing the diaphragm. Santa Maria al monte dei poveri is turned therefore into the space of the reconciliation between Bust and Pelt, through the study of the copositive logic of the Pelt and through the metaphor of the spiritual body, full of light and dialoguing continuously with the exterior environmental conditions.
SAN PIETRO IN VINCULIS
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The church of San Pietro in vinculis becomes the experimental space to study the logics of overlapping and aggregation of Pelt: it imagines a new scenario generated by the accumulation of Pelt’s devices capable of overturning the thermal comfort and the sensorial perception of the abandoned bust.
According to the study of the Bust and Pelt, San Pietro in vinculis is categorised as a Pelt > Bust, as it is absorbed by its around but also closed and walled to protect it from plundering: this peculiarity is strongly enhanced to generate a space with constant temperature of 21°C only reached by artificial light. A dense network of heating system’s installation proliferates inside of it and on the façade it reconnects the Bust with the Pelt of the environment: the Bust and the Pelt are reunited in a physical body, carnal, finding constantly the artificial perfection, which is completely contraposed to the idea of spiritual, quiet and lighting body.