Le architetture di Piazza Impero a Ragusa: progetto di restauro delle opere di Ernesto Lapadula e Francesco Fichera

The conservation of the XXth century italian architectural heritage was the main theme of the investigation about the Piazza Impero in Ragusa. The whole area was built during the italian dictatorial regime and presents both experimental and traditional techniques taken from the local architecture and the Modern Movement principles. The process of research and knowledge about these architectures (archival research, architectural survey, deterioration survey) led to a conservative project approach with different focuses and different scales of intervention. From the conservation of the original window frames, to an urban scale project about the public square, in accordance with its critical issues and weaknesses and the most recent urban laws, updated in 2016. In the 1929, a development plan for the city of Ragusa was approved after a competition won by Francesco La Grassa, a sicilian architect who worked in Rome. Ragusa needed a new plan in order to manage its new role of province. The development plan concerned the southern area of the city, a non-urbanised area. The most important functions of the new fascist’s political government were set to take place in this area, to show their ideals and their modernity. Piazza Impero became the most important place of the modern city, the political and symbolical centre. All the most important architectures were built around it between 1934-1940: the Casa del Mutilato e del Combattente and the Casa dell’Economia Corporativa, twin buildings designed by the architect Francesco Fichera; the Casa del Fascio e del Balilla, designed by the architect Ernesto Lapadula. The buildings shaped the public square, meant to host 30.000 people, and the urban landscape. After the fall of the regime, all the buildings, except the Casa del Mutilato, mantained a public use (government offices). Today, the Piazza Impero, renamed as Piazza Libertà, is a parking area. The Casa del Mutilato suffered from several interventions that caused structural and functional issues. The project’s aim is to prevent the buildings from other causes of deterioration, to plan a new functional program, to improve the quality of the actual workspaces and to restore the strong relation between private and public spaces and between the buildings and the city. The main cause of deterioration of the buildings and of the urban spaces, infact, was due to the wrong use and the misunderstanding of the spatial quality of the buildings and of their opportunities.