Mount degli Ulivi

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Monte degli Ulivi ( Italian monte degli ulivi , Mount of Olives ) is an ensemble of six buildings designed by the architect Leonardo Ricci on the south-eastern edge of the small town of Riesi in Sicily . It was built between 1963 and 1966 for the Diakonie facility Servizio Cristiano , founded in 1961 by the Waldensian pastor Tullio Vinay , which has been using and expanding it since then.

description

It consists of the following buildings, which are embedded in an olive grove on a hillside:

  • Community house (casa comunitaria) with dining room, kitchen and apartments,
  • Kindergarten (scuola materna) ,
  • Elementary school (scuola elementare) ,
  • Vocational school for mechanics (scuola meccanica) ,
  • Guest house (casa famiglie) ,
  • Director's House (casa del direttore)

A church building (ecclesia) that was also planned was not realized.

The buildings are characterized by organically curved monopitch roofs made of white plastered concrete, which stand out against angular walls made of unplastered natural stone. Right angles are rare. The ensemble refers on the one hand to Ricci's teacher Giovanni Michelucci and the style of Frank Lloyd Wright and on the other hand to the Sicilian landscape, as the natural stone used comes from the immediate vicinity.

  • Courtyard, on the left the kindergarten

  • View from the balcony of the kindergarten

  • Olive tree in front of the elementary school

history

The ensemble was named after the hill it stands on, but also refers to the biblical Mount of Olives . It was built by local construction companies together with a community of volunteers who founded the Diakoniezentrum together with Tullio Vinay. Vinay's motivation was to counter the poverty, illiteracy and crime caused by the decline of sulfur mining in the region .

Leonardo Ricci, who himself came from a Waldensian family, also designed the ecumenical center Agape above Prali in Piedmont , which was also founded by Vinay in 1946/1947 .

The original vocational school is now used as an administration building and for events. Another guest house, a facility for people with disabilities and a sports field have been added to the initial complex. There are sheds and water reservoirs for agriculture (olives, almonds, vegetables) on the site. In the center of Riesi there is a family counseling center and the church of the Waldensian community from the 19th century.

meaning

The vocational school for mechanics was described as "one of the most characteristic works of the architectural movement of the modern age in Sicily", the entire complex as "great architecture", which, however, was executed roughly and with simple means.

The complex was placed under monument protection in 2008 because of the "unique, informally inspired and organically influenced imagery, the skilful integration into nature and landscape, the special interpretation of a new community idea and the author's design method of undisputed design quality, as an essential contribution to the Sicilian architectural landscape".

A description on the occasion of Ricci's 100th birthday concluded with the words that Monte degli Ulivi should “be remembered as an experience of great importance, as an urban expression of the continuity of the actions of an entire community; an organism that is suitable for life and in which every resident feels alive. "

Web links

literature

  • Francesco Di Paola, Cinzia De Luca: The Scuola Officina Meccanica in Villaggio Monte Degli Ulivi in ​​Riesi. Reading and Analysis Through Surveying . In: Giuseppe Amoruso (Ed.): Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design (=  INTBAU 2017 ). Springer, Cham 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-57936-8 , pp. 496 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-319-57937-5_52 (English).
  • Pietro Artale: Conservazione dell'architettura contemporanea. Monte degli Ulivi di Leonardo Ricci a Riesi: metodologia e prassi per un intervento conservativo . Palermo 2014 ( core.ac.uk ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi: Architetti d'Italia. Leonardo Ricci, lo straripante. In: Artribune. September 18, 2018, accessed June 28, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Emanuele Piccardo: Leonardo Ricci. Fare comunità . 2018, p. 5 ( academia.edu ).
  3. ^ Villaggio Monte degli Ulivi. In: Atlante architettura contemporanea. Retrieved June 28, 2020 (Italian).
  4. ^ Francesco Di Paola, Cinzia De Luca: The Scuola Officina Meccanica in Villaggio Monte Degli Ulivi in ​​Riesi. Reading and Analysis Through Surveying . In: Giuseppe Amoruso (Ed.): Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design (=  INTBAU 2017 ). Springer, Cham 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-57936-8 , pp. 496-507 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-319-57937-5_52 (English).
  5. ^ Pietro Artale: Conservazione dell'architettura contemporanea. Monte degli Ulivi di Leonardo Ricci a Riesi: metodologia e prassi per un intervento conservativo . Palermo 2014, p. 414-416 ( core.ac.uk ).
  6. ↑ Marco Del Francia: Il Monte degli Ulivi a Riesi. In: ArtApp. February 22, 2019, accessed June 28, 2020 (Italian).

Coordinates: 37 ° 16 ′ 31.1 ″  N , 14 ° 5 ′ 16.8 ″  E