Crecchio, Italy
Rocco Valentini, Chiara Valentini, and Pierluigi Di Nola of Rocco Valentini Architecture revive the “Porta Gabella” of Ripa Teatina town by inserting a corten steel structure, enclosed by an envelope of vertical strings, a state-of-art construction that imitates medieval architectural techniques.
The Porta Gabella project has recently been awarded a 2023 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The architects proceed to an interpretation of the medieval gate suggesting a metaphoric image of two stylized door leaves that open outwards.
From the ground floor of the tower, through an existing underground tunnel, you enter the rooms of the adjacent building, and thanks to a new stairway and walkways in cor-ten steel we realized a link between the rooms of the tower, the rooms of the garrisons, and the alleys of the Old Town.
The defensive walls of the citadel, equipped with circular watchtowers and added in the 15th century, after the Aragonese conquest, encircled the inhabited area from the southeast making the town accessible through two large gates flanked by another watchtower.
All gates were demolished during the Second World War, leaving a void and a disconnection between the defensive structures and the town center.
The architects have reconstructed the suspended walkways, that connect the various structures, taking inspiration from the medieval wood walkway, leaning against the fortification walls that allowed the connection between the defensive towers.
Where once the Gabella gate stood, there was just a large stairway that originally looked connected with the adjacent building through a transversal masonry structure that allowed the direct passage between the two main buildings and made all the levels of the tower accessible.
Project: Gabella Gate – Porta Gabella
Architects: Rocco Valentini Architecture
Lead Architects: Rocco Valentini, Chiara Valentini, and Pierluigi Di Nola
Engineers: Maringela Flammivio and Milena Vizzarri
Projet Manager: EUROIMPINATI s.r.l.
Photographers: Rocco Valentini
