A significant part of the Sicilian and Mediterranean historical-architectural heritage is built using cut stone and the stereotomy technique.
The study and enhancement of this heritage involve various disciplines which find an extraordinary synthesis in these Italian research and workshop of Palermo’s University, happened in 2016 and 2018 and purposed as an online conference during the SHARPER Night (Sharing Researchers’ Passion for Evolving Responsibilities, that is the name of the European Researchers’ Night), one of the main international events dedicated to the dialogue between research and citizens co-financed by the European Commission within the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions of the Horizon 2020 program.
SHARPER has been held online on Friday, the 27th of November simultaneously in 12 Italian cities: Ancona, Cagliari, Catania, L’Aquila, Macerata, Nuoro, Palermo, Pavia, Perugia, Terni, Turin and Trieste.
For the 2020 edition, the initiative addresses the issue of the relationship between researchers and the challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals, including the right to health and quality education for all, even more topical issues in the emergency of the pandemic.
The Palermo’s stereotomy Laboratory (scientific responsibility proff. E. Garofalo, T. Campisi and F. Agnello), it was in that years and is still today an opportunity for research, experimental teaching and rehabilitation/restoration building yard at the same time, starts from the practice and reproduction of the processes of conception and construction of complex elements of historical architecture (vaults) as a method for a more effective and in-depth study of the same and of the architectural culture of which they are an expression. The teamwork, including also the fundamental cooperation of professor J. C. Palacios (University of Madrid) in which the final outcome depends on the perfect execution of each single element, getting hands dirty by treasuring practical experience as a cognitive tool, offer to the students the possibility of a different approach to the history of architecture, to construction and descriptive geometry, to rehabilitation and restoration interventions, in an intense and effective multidisciplinary interaction.
For more information go to: https://www.sharper-night.it/evento/conferenza-cose-la-stereotomia/
Author: Tiziana Campisi (UNIPA)