Terremoti, ruderi e ricostruzioni. Una proposta per la chiesa di Sant’ Agostino ad Amatrice

Abstract

The Church of Sant’Agostino is an aulic example of medieval mendicant architecture. The church is part of central Italy’s huge heritage reduced to ruin by the earthquake of 2016 and 2017. Those repeated seismic shocks caused the collapse of the rose window, the bell tower, the adjacent urbic door and the northwest side.
The following work concerns the cultural and technological issues of the reconstruction project for a ruin which was caused by traumatic events. These ruins have intrinsic cultural values.
This essay proposes design solutions for the church of Sant'Agostino: without altering the focus of the intervention, which consists of preservation of the cultural values of what still persists, the project envisages the reconstruction and rubble recycling, using constructive techniques that are both traditional and contemporary. Furthermore, the border line between the ruin and the rebuilt parts is marked out with both modern technological and formal solutions.