TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN OF WORSHIP PLACE: HISTORICAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE VALUE

The technological design revolution is a utopia, but the revolution does not come only from the use of new technologies, but also from the affirmation of peculiar significances: the whole design is carried out as a dialogue between the architectural, historical and functional value that places of worship preserve, and their symbolic value. It can identify formal as well as material quality of the architecture, but also the creative power linked to the genius loci. In fact, Servius said: "Nullus locus sine genius" (there is no place without a genius), according to the creed of an animistic religion on the basis of which everything is permeated by an energy and a reason, including places. If this assertion is true for natural places, for the Christian worship sites it assumes an even deeper value, because every stone, every spatial distribution, every ornament assumes a deep symbolic, moral and social meaning. The reason for a Christian worship site makes us reflect not so much what a church is, but how a church is (Norberg-Schultz, 1983) [1-3]. This contribute shows a theological conscious method to take on technological design of an ancient church where, following the removal of the flooring to perform dehumidification works, along the walls, traces frescoes, masonry altars, plastered and with traces of fresh decoration, a baptismal font in stone and decorated stone elements have been discovered. A careful analytical phase on the local context was the prerequisite to orient design choices in order to obtain the preservation of both symbolic and historical-architectural value [4-6]. The technological design offers a material and symbolic interpretation of the historical transformations that the building has undergone and, at the same time, it restores the small church to worship not only as a newfound place of faith, but also as a material testimony of the message of faith.