A box-in-a-box: building the future inside the past. Franca Stagi in Modena

The architect Franca Stagi (Modena, 1937-2008) collaborated for more than twenty years with Cesare Leonardi producing residential and public projects and successful industrial design objects. After the division of the studio in the 1980s, Franca Stagi becomes the reference architect for Modena and she dedicates herself to the recovery and re-functionalization of the large historical buildings of the city center, to the design of greenery, to urban plans and to the construction of new places for the community. In the historic center of Modena, one can remember the functional recovery of Palazzo dei Musei (1995-98), the restoration of the Municipal Opera Theatre (1995-98) and the Synagogue (1995-97), the projects for the University, such as the recovery of the Sant’Eufemia convent (1994-1995) intended for the humanities faculties, the restoration of the Foro Boario, the cattle market (2002) which became the seat of the Faculty of Economics and the recovery of the extensive San Paolo cloisters (2005-07), which today houses the Faculty of Law, a library, two restaurants, a kindergarden and a music school. The quality, quantity and size of her works produced an ongoing project in synergy with associations, citizens (always involved with participatory methods), and with local authorities, in particular with the first female mayor of the city, the partisan Alfonsina Rinaldi. The paper highlights the method adopted by Stagi when operating inside the large container buildings that represented the history of Modena, capital of the small but glorious Duchy of Este. After a careful restoration, which tells the story of the building at different historical thresholds, the new functions are built inside the monument as independent boxes, in order to establish a respectful dialogue between past and present. The article aims to reconstruct the precious vision that Franca Stagi had for the city and its territory, expressed through structural projects punctuated by specific interventions designed in detail, without ever losing an overall view. This vision represents at the same time a geographical and historical perspective, which takes into account the peculiarities of a place and its past, without giving up on transforming it in order to give it a future.