Vol. 23 No. 2 (2025): Nature, Myth, Design
Mito e progetto / Myth and Project

Prima della forma. L'architettura implicita delle cave di pietra sotterranee

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  • Chiara Caravello,
  • Andrea Gritti
Chiara Caravello
URA, Université de Liège, Belgium & DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, Italia
Andrea Gritti
DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, Italia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/rv-17907

Published 2026-05-08

Keywords

  • matter,
  • ephemeral nature,
  • extraction practices,
  • project,
  • imaginary

How to Cite

Caravello, C., & Gritti, A. (2026). Prima della forma. L’architettura implicita delle cave di pietra sotterranee. Ri-Vista. Research for Landscape Architecture, 23(2), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.36253/rv-17907

Copyright (c) 2025 Chiara Caravello, Andrea Gritti

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

Suspended between myth and reality, stone quarries are places of convergence where human action carves into matter accumulated over geological cycles spanning millions of years.
Quarrying practices have accompanied the evolution of human settlements on Earth, generat-ing landscapes with a dual character. Constructed by addition on the surface and by subtraction in depth, these voids challenge the myth of untouched nature, exposing the contradictions inherent in the processes of landscapes artificialisation.
From an ecosystemic perspective, the displacement of lithic material within terrestrial space as-signs to architecture a geological temporality, inscribed in the cycles of ‘formation’, ‘deformation’, and ‘transformation’ of human habitats. In design terms, stone quarries offer a privileged observa-tory for exploring architectural practices as the result of complex interferences between matter and energy, space and time.

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