Un passo indietro. Il progetto minimo

Designing on the former Nicolosi Monastery today starts from what remains, not to complete the unfinished, but to activate new possibilities through open scenarios. The project follows the concept of the “minimal intervention”: fragmentary elements with defined geometries, physically and perceptually related to the existing ruins. Inspired by the idea of the hearth as the first stable settlement, new horizontal planes are introduced as primordial spaces of relation. Three levels, at different heights but made of the same lava stone as the original monastery floors, define paths and areas of pause. Each intervention is measured against the pre-existing structure, enhancing its logics rather than reconstructing what is lost. The resulting spaces, articulated through geometry, material, and position, become relational surfaces—structured yet flexible, allowing multiple uses and moments of reflection on the ruins.