Citadel of Culture

The project’s aim is to transform the site of the former psychiatric hospital of Sant'Antonio Abate into a "Citadel of Culture": a building complex intended to different social activities and facilities for the city of Teramo conceived as an "open" system thus changing the "closed" character of the former psychiatric institution and reinforcing the public value of the area.

The project wants to enhance the existing open spaces while making the area fully permeable through a network of internal and external public routes connecting the different activities on the site. 

The University campus will be the primary driver for urban development and the core for social and community life. The aim is to let the University become the focus of a new image of the historic centre, a light and transparent space, where the houses of the new specialised functions reveal the users flows within them, while emphasizing the architectural values of the pre-existing buildings. The new buildings are limited at the eaves height of the existing buildings and their functional and formal linearity recovers an identity dimension through the cladding system, a mosaic of majolica tiles whose colours remember the traditional painted landscapes of the ancient Castelli ceramics.