From Earthquake to Earthquake. Compositional Languages Analysis of L’Aquila Civil Architecture

Abstract

The research, twelve years after the earthquake that devastated the city of L’Aquila, traces the history of some noble buildings through analytical investigations, examining them in their evolutionary graphic path through the filter of the seismic recurrence that defines the background to explore the metamorphoses suffered by the urban context. The seismic legacy has forced reconstruction of the buildings several times, to recompose the damaged ar-chitectures that have reworked their compositional language, renewing themselves following the same calamities. The destiny of the city has produced urban transformations and regenerations to be considered in dualism: natural event - anthropic response that becomes the common thread for analyzing the events on which the design of L’Aquila civil architecture was generated. In this regard, ten buildings were examined which in their facades reveal the reconstruction process carried out following the earthquake of 1703 which resulted in a stylistic renewal of great value. This architectural heritage was again compromised by the earthquakes of 2009, once again facing the challenges of reconstruction and in the particular of the restorations in some cases still in progress. In summary, the contribution provides an analysis that systematizes surveys carried out before and after the earthquake, providing study and comparison models on the subject of civil construction in L’Aquila.