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CENTRO SANTA CHIARA INSTALLATION AND SIGNAGE

Centro Servizi Culturali S. Chiara, owned by the Municipality of Trento, is located close to an urban park and the city centre, moreover it’s excellently served by public transport. The building is part of a former medieval convent, subject to protection by the National Heritage Commission. Since the 1980s, the two theatres and various conference rooms have hosted numerous events and attracted people of all ages and cultures.

In 2016 part of this complex, not only rich in history and art but also of particular landscape interest, was uninhabited and in a severe state of disrepair: xenophobic writings on the walls were evidence of urban and civil decay. This urban context lended itself to being defended against abandonment and degradation, and to being protected and enhanced (Target 11.4 – Sustainable cities and communities). The Centro’s signage hadn’t been updated since the 1990s and the lighting was considered insufficient.

A tender for services was then launched, aimed at designing various elements of urban furniture: totems to display plays’ billboards, totems with information and direction signs, wall claddings with shelves to display flyers in the porch and at the theatre’s entrance and a new LED outdoor lighting. Burnazzi Feltrin Architetti studio won the tender thanks to a decades of experience in designing temporary installations and urban furniture with a focus on the environmental element, using waste and recycled materials for artistic purposes. This creative way of reusing waste is internationally called upcycling (Target 12.7 – Responsible consumption and production). Client and designers were determined to work towards a permanent art installation that would, through the culture promoted by the Centro, fight the decay. Furthermore they felt a great social and environmental responsibility for a project that wanted to add a new aesthetic value to the place. These beliefs inspired the upcycling project.

During one of the first meetings something magical happened. The planners asked a question that would have influenced the development of the entire project: Question ‘What waste do you produce here in the Centre?’ Answer: ‘Paper and Dibond panels used for advertising the shows staged over the years… we have hundreds of them piled up in the basement!’ The installation reuses around 200 panels from the past shows accumulated over the years by Centro S. Chiara. The recovered billboards tell the recent past of this site whose main characters are the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the people using the “Centro”.

The re-use of waste material, reassembled to create new elements, tells us that society is enriched by diversity. It follows its own specific aesthetic rule: when waste is repeated in large quantities, it gains strength. As a result, reuse gives rise to installations with a strong visual impact and consequently, recognition for the client.

Aluminum composite panels (trade name Dibond®) even large ones, which are versatile but expensive and difficult to recycle, were selected, only those in good condition were kept, numbered and divided into groups according to color shades and thickness. In this way the waste material does not end up in landfills, but rather is enhanced (Target 3.9 – Good health and well being). In addition, using recovered materials for designing street furniture minimises the use of ‘new’ raw materials, the consumption of resources and energy to extract them, process them, transport them, etc. (Target 8.4 – Decent work and economic growth). Finally, for the first time in the world, Dibond panels have been reused for artistic purposes, extending their cycle of life (Target 12.5 – Responsible consumption and production).

On the construction site part of the designers’ work was to motivate the workers, at their first experience of upcycling. Giving new life to a waste material involves a great deal of energy, not only physical but also psychological and emotional.

The panels were cut into stripes of 16 cm width and lastly put back together, in an apparently random way, on a wooden support made of OSB, a material of natural origin that has a very low environmental impact and is also recyclable at the end of its life (Target 15.1 – Life and land).

During construction citizens were very curious and asked for information, so at the entrances was placed an explanatory text, which is still there, about the project to point out the origin of the materials used, making clear the social and environmental sustainability of the intervention (Target 4.7 – Quality education).

At night, the new lighting with LED technology improves safety and emphasises both the new street furniture and the historical architecture, enhancing the vaults of the former medieval convent. Led technology is currently considered to be more energy-efficient than traditional lighting. It has a longer service life and is more environmentally and economically sustainable (Target 7.1 – Affordable and clean energy).

Thanks to the colour and the new lighting system, both the employees of the centre and the citizens, especially women, have reported to feel safer, especially at night. This design sensibility is also made possible by the fact that the architectural firm has a 50% female quota (Target 5 – Gender equality).

The design incorporates the natural landscape and takes into account the surroundings both visually and morphologically. In order to help visitor orientation, the new signage has a brushed alluminium finish, contrasting with the prevailing hue of the complex, which is a warm terracotta color. In addition, the colours and easy-to-read signage, speaking to the mind and heart, arouse emotions and touch people’s feelings, regardless of gender, age, culture, health condition, income, such as the Centro S. Chiara does, attracting people of many different backgrounds thanks to its theaters and conference rooms. The panels’ multiple colours are the first thing people will notice while experiencing this space. The strips with warm colours were used as a visual focus for the main (from Via S. Croce) and secondary (from Via Piave) entrance of the Centro, and for the entrances of the two theatres (Auditorium and Cuminetti). The cold and neutral colours were used for the circulation spaces, since they have a calming effect and discourage users from stopping in these places.

The graffiti writers’ writings and the Centre’s installation now speak to each other, using a common language, the one of colour. Graffiti writers’ ethic teach people that if an artwork is already there it’s not right to overwrite it. The installation’s multicolour surfaces are not fitted for writings or vandalism, this is a proven fact: no graffiti has been added since the works’ completion. The display is now an active part of the city’s urban scenery: people walk and cycle through it and…why not, they can check in the totems’ display if there is a show worth going to!

Re-use gives a second chance to waste materials, and at the same time to the place and the people, it helps to contrast urban decay because it brings fantasy and creativity into play, it’s educational and even therapeutic.

In the future more installations will be built: by reusing waste, namely billboards produced every day by the Centro, new elements will be added over time aimed at achieving functional, aesthetic and emotional quality, continuing the work of intercultural education and giving everything/everybody a second chance.