Wall of Memory – Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto – Italy

Wall of Memory – Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto – Italy

Wall of Memory – Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto – Italy

Architect: Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto

Location: Lucca, Italy

Client: Passioniste nuns of the Monastery of S.Gemma Galgani

Project date: 2005

Begin of works: 2006

End of works: 2007

Total floor area: 100m²

Wall of Memory within the cloistered monastery of S.Gemma Galgani

Such an unusual theme for a project is very intriguing and fascinating for an architect, owing to both the respect required for the clients and the symbolic value that represents an architecture of this genre.

 The wall of memory originated from the wishes of the enclosed nuns of S.Gemma to have a space where they could remember and pray for their deceased sisters, through means of a path which, in the project, is represented through the tectonic language of the wall.

 The wall of Rapolano travertine, which conceived as a “rationalist seashell” unwinds from the entrance to the end of the route, marking in plan and elevation the symbol of memory, where the verticality of the stone represents the contrast between past and present.

 The contrast concludes in a square space at the end of the path, “Sancta Sactorum”, with a cypress tree in its centre, a perfectly proportioned tree culminating skywards along the path of prayer.

 The place where the wall is situated is already in itself the “Genius Loci”, which represents the life of the Monastery of S.Gemma, with its nearby vegetable garden where the nuns work the land and harvest what they have sown, with its cloister where the nuns stroll, read and pray. The project is a form of homage to the nuns, who, serenely and joyfully, have chosen to dedicate their lives to others with Christian devotion.

photo: Mario Ciampi