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MAGYAR
POLSKI |
Typically Italian: Two sets of stairs for accessing a small town from a public car park were all that was needed – and what is the result? Two really spectacular sets of stairs for accessing the town located up above.
Gallicano nel Lazio was probably already settled in pre-Roman times. It is located 30 kilometres to the east of Rome on a hill on the south side of the Monti Prenestni mountain range. Tourists love coming here to visit the San Rocco church, which was founded in 1628 after Gallicano had been spared from the rampant plague. For this reason, the narrow, steep alleys of the town were always jammed with vehicles. The approx. 5,000 inhabitants searched for a solution to the problem. And found one by building a car park in front of the hill on which the town is situated. Now all they needed was a way to connect the car park with Gallicano nel Lazio. This was achieved through the use of a spectacular mixture of expanded metal and perforated sheeting.
The architecture office Colasanto + Nobile from Rome came up with the solution. It realised an exquisite design, a mise-en-scène, which is an unqualified success. When coming towards the town on the motorway – regardless of whether from the north or south – the two ultramodern structures signal, already from far away, that it is undoubtedly a good idea to park your car here as you can clearly access the town from here. Or as the architect Fabrizio Nobile put it: “As the stairs are now in a way the first tangible sign for the town, they could, for all intents and purposes, be regarded, in the post industrial age, as the new town gates.”
There were three main reasons for selecting this type of structure as Nobile explains. The philosophical: architecture has always tried to overcome the laws of gravity and to thus make buildings seem less massive – one only has to think about Gothic cathedrals in this connection. Expanded metal and also perforated sheeting appear to have allowed the architect duo to achieve this dematerialisation. One can see through the structure and thus accentuate everything which is located beyond it. The geographical: the aforementioned emphasis establishes a relationship, in the eye of the visitor, between the town Gallicano and the ancient cultural landscape as well as the hills and valleys. The financial: the challenge of designing sensational architecture, in spite of a tight budget, was also enticing and spoke in favour of a solution in dry construction and with metal materials such as expanded metal and perforated sheeting.
The southern staircase is basically made from three enormous slabs, which were installed in front of the steep slope and the winding stairs, two of which are fully covered with expanded metal. The design of the northern staircase is more complex. Here the expanded metal forms intermediate landings and walkways, which allows you to view - from underneath - the people on their way to and from the town. Furthermore, the expanded metal and perforated sheeting fulfil additional functional tasks: they offer both weather protection and security in the form of railings. In any case, it is fascinating how the colours of these huge metal surfaces change over the course of the day, contrasting and harmonising, time and again, in new and different ways with the other materials. What you would call a really great show.
