Title

Author(s)

Paolo Belardi

Monica Battistoni

Camilla Sorignani

Affiliation

University of Perugia, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

University of Perugia, Ce.Di.Pa. Centre for Cultural Heritage Digitalisation

University of Perugia, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/RBNE5501

Keywords

Earthquake, Scaffolding Architecture, Temporary Structures

PP

158-165

How to Cite

Belardi, Paolo, Monica Battistoni, Camilla Sorignani. “Learning from Earthquakes Scaffolding as Adaptive Architecture.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 158–165. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

Post-seismic landscape appears as a fragmented and disarticulated space which, by adopting a structuralist approach, can be deconstructed into three primary components: the ruins, rubble and scaffolding constitute the dramatic legacy of calamitous events, but also the potential underlying reconstruction, both material and immaterial. In this general framework, scaffolding represents, on one side, emergency solutions that protects the building’s stability and the citizens’ safety but, on the other side, can assume the role of active elements by electing the earthquake’s heritage as a flywheel for the reactivation of the places’ memory and the re-appropriation of its identity. Consider the Abruzzi village of Buonanotte, where Buonanotte Contemporanea project elects temporary structures as works of art capable of re-functionalizing urban space and regenerating collective identities. The buildings’ statics merge with the territorial culture, activating synergies between different disciplines and knowledges. In this context, the Colab-19 collective also represents an architectural laboratory dedicated to the design of urban space in a sustainable and temporary key as a response to the post-pandemic emergency. The adaptive reuse of scaffolding as innovative and low-cost solutions allows the designers to realise widespread interventions in the Bogotá city aimed as much at sustaining the economic sector as at fostering the community’s engagement. These experiences represent the starting point of the project Church in progress designed by the Hoflab studio in Perugia: a functional building structure for the restoration of the sanctuary of Maria Santissima Assunta in Rasina, designed around the 16th century by Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Devoid of the central vault due to seismic events occurring at the end of the 20th century, the project elects the scaffolding as a communicative icon that prefigures an archetypal theca covered with fibre fabric skin and resin that allows a glimpse of the ruins outline.

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.