Carlo Scarpa in Palermo: Vladimir Zoric and the Restoration Experiences at Palazzo Abatellis and the Transformations of the Steri

Abstract

Scarpa's architecture in Palermo has undergone several maintenance or restoration interventions over time. Scarpa works with great attention to the existing structures and the museum installations are real stage machines, complex gears to be deciphered in order to be adequately preserved. In Vladimir Zoric's interventions there is this great attention to the study of the complexity of the materials used, in relation to the local components but also to what we now recognize as a clear and unmistakable formal language. The paper studies the works of Carlo Scarpa in Palermo in two important sites: the museum organization of Palazzo Abatellis and the collaboration in the adaptation to the seat of the Rectorate of Palazzo Steri. The restoration work on these buildings became necessary just thirty years after their construction. This is due to the materials used and the unscrupulous construction techniques often pushed to the extreme limits of strength and durability. The intervention required for the adaptation of the systems and safety equipment was different. Both at Palazzo Abatellis and at the Steri there has been a change in the intended use of some rooms which entailed adaptations and modifications that are not always in line with the aims of the project, generating a real anthropic degradation. Zoric's program for Palazzo Abatelis starts from Scarpa's techniques. In fact, he knew Scarpa's language well, having often collaborated with the master and having designed together with him some permanent installations of the museum. In the paper I wanted to remember how Vladimir Zoric, with extreme sensitivity, solves the problem of lighting adaptation by opting for light sources hidden from view. He wisely uses inexpensive elements, such as fluorescent neon tubes, which are placed on the roof, in positions hidden from the view of museum users and able to give diffused and non-punctual lighting, as in the frames of the dome-skylight of the ancient Chapel of the Palace. The comparison with the latest extension works of the National Gallery is an opportunity to reflect on the methods of intervention in historic buildings. Scarpa's lesson at the Steri is declined between agreements and contrasts, modern materials used in an ancient way and ancient techniques that give a new shape to iron and concrete. The analysis of the cases addressed in the paper shows many ideas to reflect on. There is a close relationship between conservation, restoration and maintenance. Years later we are witnessing the need for “restoration of the restoration” but it can be said that both at Steri and Abatellis it is the so-called anthropic degradation that causes the greatest damage and causes heavy transformations in the work of Carlo Scarpa.