open plan and academe: pre- and post

RECOVERY OF BUILT HERITAGE IN NINETEENTH CENTURY
ARCHITECTURE. FRAGAPANE PALACE IN GRAMMICHELE (CT)
Fernanda Cantone, Giovanna Cantone, Patrizia Carnazzo, Alessia Giuffrida
Department of “Analisi, Rappresentazione e Progetto nelle Aree del Mediterraneo” (ARP),
Faculty of Architecture of Syracuse, University of Catania, Italy
fcantone@unict.it
ABSTRACT
The scientific beginnings of the proposed research theme is the concept of ‘recovery and maintenance of a
building’, seen as a possible area of application of operation repeatable methodologies, mediating between
conservation and transformation. In fact the built heritage, often compromised by the absence of recovery and
maintenance actions, is a complex system that can hardly justify project choice. The research seeks to find an
operational method in which emerge the criteria that lead to operation choices. The approach is based on data
obtained from a technological and historical survey and investigation necessary to understand the object in its
specific worthiness and transformations. The achieved method is applicable on the nineteenth-century-building
through a multidisciplinary process of recovery, coherent with the buildings, with its history, its shape, its
technology, and with the other cultural and social factors involved.
KEYWORDS: knowledge, diagnosis, technology, history.
INTRODUCTION
The existing built, that is the architecture of the past in general, is visible matter and produces
information related to the reason why it was raised, its constructive character, its cultural
values. The history and the long past that mark Italy have manufactured architectures of
every kind, tangible sign of domination, of cultural and technological evolution, of cultural,
political and social events. These assets are numerous in our cities and deserve to be
recovered. The recovery project is, by definition, a set of procedures, decisions and actions,
applied to any settlement, directed to seize latent potentiality by the pre-existing assets and
able to preserve them for the future. "Recovery is saying again what has already been said,
unwinding that first wound (…) The category of recovery becomes an exceptional
opportunity to rethink the whole process of architectural creation" (Benvenuto, 1984).
The operation of recovery implies the knowledge of the subject on which it wants to
intervene, identifying his characteristics and qualities, to understand his behaviour and stop
phenomena of physical degradation and functional obsolescence, after having identified the
causes through diagnosis. In this sense, the diagnosis is understood as an analytical judgment
on the conditions of a building or some of its parts, subject not only to the inexorable passage
of time and work of disruptive weather, but also to the inconsiderate action of man that often
creates unfavourable conditions to the preservation of buildings. Any decision to take and
action to perform may not necessarily cover the whole building, but its shares and the
operation could provide long operating times and diluted over time; so to think of the
recovery project as an open and flexible project is essential (Gasparoli et al., 2006). In this
context, it is highlighted the multidisciplinary process of recovery; the issues at stake have to
compare the contributions of the other disciplines and to establish a dialogue whose purpose
is to build an information system as a basis for defining intervention guidelines. In other
words it is necessary to recover coherently with the buildings, with its history, its shape, its
technology, and with the other cultural and social factors involved.
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The aim of the research is to achieve a method for the recovery of nineteenth-centurybuildings, like Fragapane palace, subject of this study. Through analysis led to the building is
possible to elaborate information about its historical evolution, its material and construction
features and possible changes that have involved, in order to guide the intervention choices
about what transform and what preserve to safeguard the quality of building.
THE CASE STUDY
Fragapane palace is by the famous hexagonal Carlo Maria Carafa square in Grammichele,
occupying the block on the corner of Vittorio Emanuele street. It was commissioned by the
Fragapane family, to be purchased (2005?) by the Regional Province of Catania and then sold
on loan of free use to the municipality in recent times. The building mirrors the architectural
culture of the time, showing a revisionism typical of the period. It was built in 1877 by the
designs of the architect Carlo Sada, although the watercolours owned by the Fragapane
family, donated by Sada, carry the signature of the engineer Cantarella.
The building, typological recognizable as a bourgeois building, has two elevations in bearing
walls. The articulation of space is symmetrical and regular with vaulted rooms. The facades,
covered with limestone and with lava stone basement, are marked by pilasters and openings
with carved jambs and frames alternately in gable and camber arch.
THE METHOD
The stage of knowledge is fundamental in the recovery project. It is the source of all
information that the operator should input into the system to find the operational solutions.
The subject of this study, Fragapane palace, was analyzed by several points of view: the
historical, technological and structural knowledge. In particular historical knowledge was
explicit in historiography published texts, and through archival research at public and private
structures. To facilitate the difficult task, schemes and filings are used to compare the results
obtained. The technological knowledge has taken into account the study of geometries and
morphologies of the building, its survey, the analysis of the relationship between the parts,
the constructive characters, the materials and their preservation, and has also defined the state
of deterioration of the external surfaces. It ultimately shapes the structural grid. The area of
knowledge structure, closely related to the technology one, is made explicit through the
happened structural movements and visible damage (Cantone et al., 2006a).
The recovery project has to be able not only to identify the uniqueness of the analyzed asset,
but also to ensure the integration between the new scenarios and the pre-existing buildings
through the control of the conservation/transformation process. Hence the recovery project
defines a system of constraints intended as a force that is opposed to transformation. The
stronger is the constraint, the lesser is the space for transformation and the more is the weight
of conservation. The constraints are therefore intended as prominent characters that must be
maintained, but also as a potential development that suggests the possibility of modification
of the building (Cantone et al., 2006b).
At last, it is necessary to compare findings with the existing building types. This stage
produces further indications of operation for the safeguard of typological original
conformation. The drafting of guidelines for the recovery of the nineteenth-century-buildings
comes then from the identification of constraints to the transformation, from their comparison
with the typological relevant elements, in order to identify shares to be modified, parts to be
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conserved and application methods. In this discussion, for the sake of brevity, we exemplify
only information about the historical and technological analysis of building.
AREA OF HISTORICAL
KNOWLEDGE
TOOLS
CONSTRAINTS
historiographic
comparison
cultural
perceptive
historical and comparative analysis
archives researches
AREA OF TECHNOLOGICAL
KNOWLEDGE
geometric-morphologic analysis
ENQUIRY
survey
geometric
morphologic
perceptive
study of morphologic
characters
study of material and
constructive characters
technological analysis
material
constructive
perceptive
cultural
status of maintenance
Analysis of deterioration
material
constructive
study of structural grid
material
constructive
structural conception
AREA OF STRUCTURAL
KNOWLEDGE
structural analysis
TOOLS
study of damages
morphologic
material
constructive
study of structural
movements
typological comparison
operational scenery
GUIDELINES FOR RECOVERY OF
NINETEENTH-CENTURY-BUILDINGS
Figure 1. Operational methodology
The historical and comparative analysis
Carlo Sada (Milan 1849-Catania 1924) is called in Sicily in 1873 by the architect Andrea
Scala, to cooperate to the design of the Politeama theatre of Catania; this opportunity gave
him such reputation among aristocrats and upper bourgeois of Catania, to promote numerous
professional appointments, as it is documented in the vast Sada Fund, which contains nearly
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2000 designs. The success obtained in forty years, arrived up to Syracuse, Ragusa, Reggio
Calabria, Malta and even in Russia and Brazil. Sada also operated in Grammichele, making
the Town Hall (Project 1893-opening in April 1899), and then winning other appointments:
the completion of the facade of the mother-church dedicated to St. Michele the Archangel
(1899), the construction of the Coniglione house (1900) and the construction of the
Fragapane palace (1877? / 1898-1900?) subject of this research.
Figure 2. Photo of the Fragapane palace and survey of the facade on Vittorio Emanuele street
The story about the construction of the building is rather confused. No documents confirming
the year of the appointment have been found, oral sources passed down by the owners of the
building testify the will to entrust the project of their residence to the architect Carlo Sada,
because enthusiast by the outcome of the Town Hall, built between 1897 and 1899 (the dates
were obtained from archival documents). But the two watercolour on the project show a
chronology rather incongruous: September 1877. This date seems instead coherent with the
contemporary production of the architect: by making a stylistic-typological comparison with
residential architecture, produced by Sada in Catania between 1875 and 1880, such as
Libertini palace, once Paternò of Raddusa palace of 1875-79, or Polino house of 1877, Baron
Cantarella house of 1877, there is a common desire to propose again the Neo-Renaissance
palace’s type, with base accentuated by bosses, rhythmic scansion modulated by pilasters and
bossy cantonal, and typical formal elements such as the alternating gable-camber arch in
coronas of openings on the noble floor. A layout rather austere, if compared to the formal
results of the following period, or to more important works, such as those made for public
commissions. But then, why do the owners refer to a building of the late '90s of the
nineteenth century, if the project indicates 1877? Maybe the heirs, mixing dates and facts,
appointed Sada in a moment of still emerging notoriety (1873-78), or the architect, not much
involved by the appointment and very busy by commitments that led him everywhere,
decided to take inspiration from existing studies and drawings, making marginal changes.
The story becomes further complicated by the fact that when analyzing the two drawings the
signature of Sada is not found, but that of a collaborator, Giuseppe Cantarella. A similar
ambiguity was presented for Libertini palace in Catania, signed by Cantarella; resolved in
1978 with the attribution to Sada, definitively confirmed with the discovery of autograph
drawings of the project within the Fund.
This event allows us to clarify some new aspects of the new architectural practice of Carlo
Sada: a man very professionally busy, who in some circumstances - so far only two
established – used the aids to such an extent to give their projects his signature and the
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direction of the work. However it is presumed that a careful and meticulous preparatory study
was at the base, perhaps with preliminary original sketches or drawings.
Figure 3. G. Cantarella (C. Sada?), Main facade of Mrs M. Fragapane house in Grammichele,
Catania, September 1877, Indian ink pencil and watercolour on paper, scale 1:50, mm 480x
630, graphic field mm 292 x 400.
G. Cantarella (C. Sada?), Transversal section plane on the line A-B of the plan of Mrs M.
Fragapane house in Grammichele”, Catania, September 1877, Indian ink pencil and
watercolour on paper, scale 1:50, mm 485x 620, graphic field mm 293 x 370.
Technological analysis
The study has examined the most significant technical elements, walls, vaults, roofs, stairs
and fixtures, identifying the different types and constructive lexicon, the materials and the
transformations suffered over time.
The elevation structures of Fragapane palace consist of bearing rubble-filled walls, with
variable thickness from cm 20 until cm 130. The main facades have a ashlar cladding.
Limestone is the used material, which is used for both structural and decorative parts. There
are thin internal partitions, between cm 20 and 30, which consists of limestone slabs, placed
in a sheet and tied with mortar.
The used building techniques are readable by the facades: the stone rustic and boasted ashlars
of various sizes, are placed tip and band in regular courses, with medium and small elements
such as shelf (lava stone and pieces of tiles) and filling of the cavity wall.
The vaults of the ground floor are cross or barrel vaults, covered with plaster, without
decorations. The first plan has thin sectioned cloister vault, casting made with rockfill and
mortar. These vaults are decorated, but partially cracked and damaged.
The roofs were technologically analyzed on the basis of their geometry, materials with which
they are built and technical realization. The most common type is with the single pitched and
double frame, with the main beam horizontally placed and inclined according to the slope
purlins, the roof covering consists of tiles, the layer under the covering consists in wood
boarding.
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Figure 4. Scheme on the roofs
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The system of meteoric water channelling has two different solutions: the first is an eaves
gutter inside thick walls made of tiles and placed on a jut of the cornice and hidden by the
parapet; the second is made with tiles, jutting to the wall, on a recently made eaves gutter.
The main staircase is made up of neck-goose vaults that support the ramps and the landings.
At the ground floor the ramps are supported by pillars with brackets and decorated capitals or
by partition walls, with plastered finish and stucco.
The fixtures are made of wood and are made up of a false frame, a fixed frame anchored to
the wall, a mobile frame connected to the one fixed by hinges, and a dimming system
connected to the fixed frame also with hinges. The glass shutter and the dimming are usually
with two leafs, with the exception of the greatest fixtures, that have the dimming with three
leafs, and of smaller interior doors, with one leaf.
A good part of the analyzed technical elements has damage of various intensity. Some
fixtures require additions, the roofs have shortcomings of proofing. This is reflected in the
walls with infiltration and mould. Some openings at the first floor have apparent lesions and
yielding architraves.
Here a scheme on the roofs (Figure 4) is produced as examples.
CONCLUSIONS
The recovery operation, applied on nineteenth-century-buildings, must result from a balanced
connection conservation/transformation. If once the indifference towards common buildings
had led to drastic operations on the structure and to the maintenance only of the outside,
today the recovery operations are more sensitive to the preservation of the building and even
to its recovery in functional and formal terms.
The systematization of the information collected and the identification of the transformation
constraints led to the following needs:
•
•
•
•
•
to exploit nineteenth-century-buildings which strongly characterizes the Italian and
Sicilian cities;
to preserve the morphology and architectural composition of the building and the facade;
to identify compositional schemes to make in relation to existing and future functions;
to intervene with clearly distinguishable techniques from existing ones, possibly adopting
reversibility criteria;
to identify clear processing constraints that direct operations recovery towards
conservation.
Here guidelines for the recovery were identified, applicable to nineteenth bourgeois
buildings, in urban contexts. The recovery operations, in particular for the study case, must
point to the safeguard of historical and material identity of the building and of his symbolic,
cultural and social importance, even if a change of destination use is provided.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The designs are the result of the analysis and research work of the final year undergraduate
student Gabriella Murgana and are the subject of a degree thesis about the recovery of the
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Fragapane palace in Grammichele, tutor arch. F. Cantone, at the Faculty of Architecture in
Siracusa, Italy, academic year 2007-2008.
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