Chiostri di San Pietro
The intervention concerns the restoration of Cloisters of San Pietro, the most extraordinary monumental complex in the city of Reggio Emilia, with the aim of creating a cultural venue of international relevance, strengthening the natural vocation of the ancient Benedictine monastery. The project involved in a single operation three closely related interventions: the restoration of the Renaissance monumental body, partly attributed to Giulio Romano; the addition on the footprint of the demolished minor bodies of the new Urban Open Laboratories, in continuity with the also restored ancient stables; the redevelopment of the courtyard areas formerly connected to the monastery, as public spaces returned to the city, discovering its role as an urban crossing.
The valorisation of the unfinished, interpreting what Giulio Romano could not complete, has become the methodological criterion and the conceptual filter for each choice that regarded the whole complex, including additions and open spaces.
It is a principle that amplifies the meaning of the context and places a non-formal, non-definitive limit on it, assuming a higher-order completeness as a possible point of arrival: a way to leave the project open, refining the method in its making.
In search of a balanced relationship between ancient and contemporary, between rediscovering spaces and establishing new compatible uses, the intervention revives the Benedictine matrix able to combine conservation with innovation.
