Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

Memory Wall

This is a project by Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto and it is located at S.Gemma Monastery, Lucca, Italy. There are six images for Memory Wall.

: © Mario Ciampi

Project images

Designer's statement

For an Architect is quite interesting to project such an unusual theme. Is important the respect to who commissioned the project and is even important to reach the symbolic meaning that needs an Architecture like this.

Memory Wall was commissioned by the cloister nuns of S.Gemma for having a place where commemorating dead sisters and praying for them. The path takes the faithful trough the architectural language of the wall.

The Wall is local travertine made, and seems a “rationalistic snail”. The path goes regular from the entrance to the end, and marks with its ground plan and elevation the meaning of memory.

The path ends in a square place, “Sancta Sanctorum”, with a cypress in the centre. The cypress is a well-proportioned tree that goes to the sky bringing up this memory path.

The place where Memory Wall is set is already a “Genius Loci” that represent the whole life of Monastery of S.Gemma. Nearby the Memory Wall there is the back-garden where nuns works, near the Wall there is even the cloister, where nuns walk, read and pray.

This project is homage to nuns, which with their Christian devotion dedicated with serenity and happiness their life to the others.