Centro Servizi Culturali Santa Chiara installation and signage
The Centro Servizi Culturali Santa Chiara, property of Trento Municipality (Italy), is located in the city center, in a medìèval former convent, partially protected by “Sovrintendenza dei Beni architettonici” the cultural heritage committee.
The “Centro Servizi” and the urban park, link different parts of the city and, together with the two theatres, attract people of all ages and different cultures.
Since the 80's the center has hosted several events, such as the Trento Film festival, dedicated to the mountains, adventure and exploration.
Part of the complex, abandoned for ages, is in a severe state of disrepair and there are offensive and xenophobic writings on the walls, evidence of urban and civil decay. Both designers and client believe that the culture, represented by the Centro Servizi, can fight the decay. This belief has inspired the concept idea of the re-design.
The artistic installation and the signage re-use the old Dibond billboards, advertising the past shows. Dibond is an alluminium sandwich panel, versatile but also expensive and hard to recycle. Panels have been recovered, cut into stripes of 16 cm width and lastly put back together in an apparently random way, on a wood batten support frame. The stripes are multicolour and the signage is made of brushed aluminium sheets. With the upcycling, more than 200 panels have been reused. The panels have been divided between in warm, cold and neutral colours. Few panels have been thrown away, because too damaged.
The new functional elements for the visitors are: new advertising panels, totems with information and direction signs, wall claddings with shelves for the display of flyers. This work aims to have functional, aesthetic and emotional quality and focuses on the great social responsibility of the urban furniture work.
RE-USE is seen both as a way to improve urban quality of life, the installation speaks to the mind and the heart, it wants to touch people's feelings and as a new aesthetic, the importance of removing disparities and give a second chance.
The dibond material, reassembled in an apparently random way, tell us that, not only no one is perfect, but also society is enriched by diversity.
The writers' ethic says that it's not right to overwrite a graffiti. The installation's multicolour surfaces are not fitted for writings or vandalism.
Over time, new elements will be added to the installation to achieve functional, aesthetic and emotional quality.