Stabilimento Monaco a Misterbianco. Dal passato al futuro.

Buildings are a tangible testimony of the construction methods, lifestyle, and productive activities. The remains and testimonies of more centuries of industrial activities are a very considerable wealth of scientific, anthropological, and cultural-historical data, with a not yet fully appreciated potential. In Sicily the old productive places are mostly in state of neglect. Sicily's industrial character increased considerably in the nineteenth century also thanks to local entrepreneurship initiatives. Those had significant and inevitable urban, landscape and social repercussions. Matter of the research is an old factory, founded by the entrepreneur Francesco Monaco in Misterbianco (near Catania, Sicily), during the XX sec. The impact of the factory on the city was very important, and in a short time, the city changed its vocation from agricultural to industrial. The factory burned down in 1922 and for the next decades it was abandoned, leaving a big injury in the centre of Misterbianco. Nowadays, half of the remains of the Stabilimento Monaco are in state of neglect. The authors propose a re-use project which aims to revitalize the artifact. This proposal took shape based on the soul and memory of the site, and it represents a reproducible method to restore dignity to the abandoned industrial areas of our town. Moreover, in order to meet the current needs of society, the design strategies move on different level: functional, structural, and energetical.