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 1983, 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 projects for the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, one of Stagi’s main clients, such as the restoration of Foro Boario, the cattle market (1989-2002) which became the seat of the Faculty of Economics, the reuse of the Sant’Eufemia convent (1994-1995) intended for the humanities faculties, and the recovery of the extensive San Paolo and San Geminiano cloisters (2005-07), which today houses the Faculty of Law, a library, restaurants, a kindergarden and a music school. The quality, quantity and size of her works produced an ongoing project in synergy with associations, citizens, and with local authorities, in particular with the first female mayor of the city, 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.