Le case dell’acqua, Architetture dell’Ingegneria in Sicilia

Water reservoirs represent an evocative design theme, which lies between engineering and architecture, in which the technical aspects are compared with the aesthetic and linguistic values of the building. At the same time they constitute a little-known chapter of architecture, although it is particularly interesting from the point of view of aesthetic content in relation to technological issues, for the extraordinary relations that they establish with the places. Water reservoirs have, or perhaps have had in the past, the vocation to express in a high way the meaning and level of representativeness of architecture: because they conserve water, an indispensable good for the life of communities; since they solve the constant dialectic between artifice and nature, typical of every construction; as they contribute to constitute themselves as urban monuments. The houses of the water, so we can call them as they give shelter to the water, are fully integrated into the story to the linguistic experiments that develop over time and, in the Sicilian landscape, represent places from which it emanates a great charm, often linked to the tension between the refined smoothness of architectural solutions and placement in natural environments of harsh beauty.