New San Giovanni Bosco parish complex in Bagheria (PA)

The approach to the project area starts from the breath of the Mediterranean, which has always been a place of overlapping and exchange of the most ancient western civilisations; it tells of sea, air, light and people with which all our culture is interwoven. It is a place where the encounter with the other becomes an exchange, a welcome, an enrichment: the seed of the Word planted in a Mediterranean garden in the sign of a welcoming and supportive humanity.

From this perspective, the proposal of a parish complex that is not a towering monument to itself, but a concrete instrument of welcome, is of fundamental importance.

Some traditional elements of Mediterranean architecture are reinterpreted in a contemporary sustainable way. The type of church with a central plan seems the most suitable for this community expressing the need for assembly participation. The stereometric spaces are articulated on a square plan and a horizontal prism, all enclosed and channelled under a single enveloping roof based on the archetype of the dome. The latter, starting from the rich historical and cultural tradition of the Palermo area, is shown as a soft reinterpretation of a Sicilian dome. Its colourful, vibrant and brilliant ceramic is strongly visible, echoing the traditional colours of Bagheria’s gardens, configuring itself almost like the precious fabric of an inlaid cloth.

The embrace, both symbolic and social, is at the same time an element of spatial organisation, making all the rooms in the centre organic.

The only vertical counterpoint is the bell tower which stands out with a cross supported by light twisted elements.

The proposed building is intended to be a small symbolic place for a humanity that absolutely rejects the concept of “waste”, where the most important thing is the need to rediscover one’s origins, to recognise oneself in an identity, to find areas of positive experience and hope.