Slaughterhouse in Santa Severina, Catanzaro, 1974 - A. Anselmi (con G. Patanè)

picture from G.R.A.U. isti mirant stella - Architetture 1964-1980, edited by Kappa / A.A.M. Architettura Arte Moderna, 1981, Roma - Città e progetto 1. Collana di Architettura diretta da Francesco Moschini.








































[...] The complex logic that undergoes these works let see a tension towards formal simplification, where geometry, far from becoming a field of virtuosity, is an element of clarity and order. [...]
In this slaughterhouse two elements are simply pulled together, a circular one for the butchery and a square one for the stable: but still those two volumes, so different, exchange important cross references. Blocked in austere closure – even if the circular shape would suggest opening towards landscape – they seem to hold, wrapping it in their intimacy, an extraneous element, turned mythical through history but reduced to a purely domestic use: so they are those two secret, vaguely hinted references to Stonehenge on one side, and the shape of the Italic tempietto in the other building.
The modesty of execution, kept within the handmade quality of local artisans, contrasts with the richness of the design: in the same way the simplicity of the appearance contrasts with a complex play of interpenetration and joints; the solidity of the building is undermined by the lightness of the octagonal structure that brings light on the inside and by the cubic lantern on top. Elements that underline the passage from a horizontal tendency and its vertical elevation.

from Domus 623 / December 1981


3D reconstruction





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