restauro palazzo gagliardi

The restoration of Palazzo Gagliardi De Riso in Vibo Valentia, Calabria, was a finalist in a two-stage 2023 design competition to turn the noble palace into a centre for culture and sustainable tourism.

The palace keeps most of its original layout, with suites of rooms in enfilade, symmetry and long perspectives, but it had been closed for years and roof leaks had damaged the wallpapers and vaults of the piano nobile. The project works on two levels: permanent changes limited to new stairs, a lift and toilets, placed in the least valuable rooms, and flexible, reversible solutions everywhere else. The restoration covers the roof, the strengthening of walls and vaults, the in-situ repair of the paper decorations, laboratory restoration of curtains and carpets, and the conservation of the original terrazzo and cement-tile floors and doors.

The palace opens up to the city again. On Corso Umberto I, the old doors and shutters are replaced by perforated, backlit brass panels that hint at the life inside and make the façade striking at night. The central doorway leads to the courtyard with a café and bookshop, then to temporary exhibition rooms and a conference hall. Upstairs, the panelled dining room with its coffered ceiling becomes the Province's meeting room; the smoking room, sofa room, fireplace room and hall of mirrors house a permanent exhibition on the palace's history and host chamber concerts; other rooms hold a multimedia library and a tourism research lab.

The spaces are shared and hybrid: people can study, work or read anywhere. New coffered ceilings, a modern reading of the originals, conceal lighting and services without touching the historic decoration.