Il confronto delle idee. Visioni progettuali per un recupero possibile (The comparision of ideas. Design concepts for a possiblerecovery)

The essay makes a synthesis of the experience of research carried out in the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo and aimed at identifying possible scenarios and design visions for the recovery of the thermal power station "Tifeo" in Augusta (SR), significant project by Giuseppe Samonà.The research points out that architectural design and project of landscape are (once again) inseparable and linked by strict mutual influences: building restoration and landscape “restoration” are simultaneous and interacting actions, with a common objective that can only be achieved through a moderate reflection carried out on different scales, passing by the edifice dimension to that of the territory and vice versa, moving along a reasoned and reasonable direction, within which to define the various possible steps, but also considering a gradual adaptability of choices to the proceeding of the interventions.The occasion of the project was seen as an opportunity for the definition of relationships, introducing new ones or revealing and strengthening those already existing in the place, with a programmatic attitude that is the sign of a working method that favors, in the quality of project, its “intelligence” rather than the formal and stylistic choices. The work is especially focused on the ability to establish significant relationships among the pre-existences, to give them a new meaning. The change of meaning gives a surplus value that brings the practice of architecture back to its epistemological origin.