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Laboratorio di progettazione dello spazio interno –  lo Spazio Sacro.

Interior Space Design Workshop - Sacred Space.

INTERIOR SPACE DESIGN WORKSHOP - SACRED SPACE.

25 June 2024, in Lecture Hall R1 of the School of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano, the semester-long journey of the students who presented their projects in the exhibition at the INTERIOR SPACE DESIGN WORKSHOP with the theme lo SACRED SPACE.

The Prof. Pierluigi Salvadeo with the integration of the Prof. Matteo Poli and the assistant Arch. Diletta Casolariin the presence of the Vice Principal Prof. Gessica Grittisurrounded by the Professors Arch. Marco Palandella, Dr Sergio Conti, Prof. Don Lorenzo Maggioni presented the criteria by which the work would be judged, after which the student teams took turns in describing the concept that guided them in the realisation of their project and the operational steps taken.

Each group autonomously chose the area to work in from those identified by the lecturer in the Milan area, with the freedom to produce models and illustrative tables according to their own sensitivity.

At the end of each description, the professors present and, took turns in elaborating on the theme of the sacred as it was envisaged in each architectural proposal, rich in graphics and three-dimensional models in the context of the general layout.

One must immediately recognise the extreme variety of treatments, ranging from research more properly linked to the sacred space understood from a confessional point of view, albeit with entirely new expressions, to proposals detached from any context with connotations that can be traced back to a religious belief.

Outside of any contingency due to a public or private commission, the freedom was absolute and manifested in what spirit the students approached the subject.

One can therefore see, along with the architectural treatment of the various works, the study and research with an open eye to philosophy and psychology, in the sense that one can read in the realisations with what vision and with what sensitivity the students have approached the issues pertaining to spirituality. 

No qualms about daring unusual investigations and paths that describe the plurality of sentiments of the contemporary world, especially the world of youth, called upon to accept or provocatively challenge forms and modes of a tradition established in the past. 

With these considerations, the evaluation of the projects carried out transcends the judgement of purely architectural values to embrace the visions underlying the conception of spaces, visions that speak of the suggestions and dreams of a generation called upon to interpret what the "sacred" communicates today to the heart of man thirsting for truth and light for his life.

Vincitori Premio Internazionale Architettura Sacra 2024

Winners International Prize for Sacred Architecture 2024

The Frate Sole Foundation is proud to announce the winners of the International Prize for Sacred Architecture 2024, an award that celebrates excellence in contemporary Christian sacred architecture at a global level.

This year, the award was openly nominated by 128 projects from all over the world with professional firms belonging to 28 different nationalitiesdemonstrating the relevance and importance of sacred architecture in today's cultural context.

All projects can be viewed at this link: https://internationalprize.fondazionefratesole.org/

The First Prize, l'Academy Awards for Sacred Architecture 2024was awarded to:

Fernando Martín Menis for the iglesia Santísimo Redentor in Las Chumberasin the municipality of San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain).

Photo credits - Simona-Rota

The Second Prize ex aequo was awarded to:

Mario Cucinella for the church of the Santa Maria Goretti parish complex in Mormanno (CS), Italy.

Photo credits - Duccio Malagamba

ARQBR Arquitetura and Urbanism for the igreja of the Paróquia da Sagrada Família in Brasilia (Brazil).

Photo credits - Joana França

The Third Prize was awarded to:

Alejandro Beautell for the iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in Alcalá (Tenerife, Spain).

Photo credits - Flavio Dorta

The jury also identified the following projects worthy of mention:

Alsar Atelier for the temporary installation for the 'Alhmbras Cross' pandemic in Bogotá, Colombia.

Cerejeira Fontes Architect for the Imaculada and Cheia de Graça Chapel, in the Minor Seminary of Braga (Portugal).

Paula Santos | arquitectura for the Presbytery-do-recinto-de-oracão in Fatima (Portugal).

The initial prize pool of €30,000 is divided as follows:

- First Prize: 15,000 €

- Second Prize ex aequo: € 5,000 each

- Third Prize: 5,000 €

The winners of the International Prize for Sacred Architecture 2024 will be honoured during the ceremony to be held next Saturday 5 October in Pavia.

Commemorazione di Padre Costantino Ruggeri 25 Giugno 2024

Commemoration of Father Costantino Ruggeri 25 June 2024

A day dedicated to the spiritual and artistic legacy of a great man

Locandina Commemorazione Padre Costantino Ruggeri 2024

The Frate Sole Foundation recently celebrated the figure of Father Costantino Ruggeri with an event that took place on 25 June 2024 at the Convent of the Friars Minor in Canepanova. The day, rich in meaning and spirituality, was attended by numerous faithful and admirers of Ruggeri's work.

The ceremony began with a solemn mass celebrated by Father Enrico Russotto at 6.30 p.m. in the evocative Church of Santa Maria Incoronata in Canepanova. 

After the Eucharistic celebration, the guests moved to the courtyard of the Canepanova Convent, where an exhibition dedicated to the work of Father Costantino Ruggeri had been set up. Visitors were able to admire the beauty and depth of the works, which convey messages of peace, joy and hope.

The evening ended with refreshments in the cloister of the Canepanova Convent, where participants had the opportunity to share moments of fraternity and reflection, recalling the life and work of Father Costantino Ruggeri.

Father Ruggeri, who lived from 1925 to 2007, was a Franciscan friar and a gifted artist, whose work is characterised by a profound search for spiritual expression through form and colour. His artistic legacy, exhibited in numerous churches and public spaces in Italy and abroad, continues to inspire and nourish the souls of many.

The commemoration of Father Costantino Ruggeri was a valuable opportunity to pay tribute to his extraordinary contribution to sacred art and Franciscan spirituality. The event represented a bridge between past and present, keeping his legacy alive and inspiring future generations to discover and appreciate the beauty and depth of his work.began

Mostra LUCE DI PARADISO – padre Costantino Ruggeri

Exhibition LIGHT OF PARADISE - Father Costantino Ruggeri

LIGHT OF PARADISE

"The how much and the which of that cheerfulness
Between collages and stained glass, the research of Father Costantino Ruggeri

pavia, Palazzo del Broletto, Sala discover - from 19 December 2023 to 31 January 2024

The exhibition hours will be as follows:
- Friday to Sunday from 17.00 to 19.30
- Thursday mornings from 10 a.m. to 12 noon
- Monday to Friday the exhibition can also be visited by appointment

The exhibition will host a glass craftsman who will demonstrate techniques to schools and interested parties;
will be present on Fridays 12-19-26 January 2024 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and 2 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

In canto XXX of Paradise, of the Divine Comedy, Dante saw a river of light that suddenly took on a circular shape, like a lake. It was the celestial rose of the angels and the blessed united by the same, unique joy around the radiance of God.

This exhibition offers an immersion of sight and mind into the exuberant imagery of the collages of Father Costantino Ruggeri (1925-2007), Franciscan friar, priest, and world-famous artist of vast and multiform production. In the links he established between collages and stained glass windows, in many churches in Italy and abroad, the powerful religiosity of his Franciscan spirituality emerges with spontaneous freshness. With the stained-glass windows, for which the collages were largely a preparation, he produced an overflowing and vital river of coloured light, rich in reverberations and mysterious messages, leading to the joyful experience narrated by Dante in Canto XXX of Paradise in the Divine Comedy.

The sequence of wall panels first guides the visitor to a preliminary and synthetic knowledge of the artist, his training, and his arrival at the Pavia convent of Canepanova; it then presents two large sections, one comprising the documentary corpus of collages and the other that of stained-glass windows, separated by the brief interlude of panels dedicated to Matisse and Vence, a master and work of reference that was meditated on for a long time but not imitated. On display in the showcases is a series of collages extracted from the 37 folders in which his father wanted them to be collected. A facsimile of the book he composed, based on a printed publication, to explore the famous Chapel of Vence can be leafed through by visitors. A sketch of a stained-glass window gives an insight into Father Ruggeri's stained-glass construction method. Short films introduce visitors to a first-hand knowledge of the father and the convent world in which he worked. The exhibition is the result of a long-term collaboration with members of the Pavia-based Fondazione Frate Sole and the Studio Ricerca Arte Sacra, heirs to the heritage and custodians of the father's memory. It seemed opportune and advantageous to be able to develop the story of the inventions between collages and stained-glass windows at the same time in two locations, in Pavia and Cesano Maderno, according to a direction that would restore the complementary nature of its contents on the basis of a single interpretative structure, with an appropriate dosage between distinct and identical panels. It was therefore decided to qualify the Pavia 'section' as a workshop exhibition and the one in Cesano Maderno as a documentary exhibition.

Father Constantine liked to perceive and make people perceive the joyful harmony of creation and redeemed men by inventing figures, now easier now more mysterious and always changing, with simple scraps of coloured paper. Like Matisse, he liked to make this childish game with scissors the moment of genesis of an art made of light. Perhaps he realised that, in the game, that joy brought by the angels to the shepherds on the night of the Saviour's birth exploded within him.

Premiazione vincitori Premio Internazionale Tesi di Laurea ‘Costantino Ruggeri’

Award ceremony for the winners of the 'Costantino Ruggeri' International Thesis Award

La Brother Sun Foundation takes place since 1996 an active role in the promotion and at Awareness of Sacred Architecture in the architectural landscape contemporary.

At the end of the third edition of the quadrennial International Prize for Sacred Architecture, the Frate Sole Foundation felt the desire to extend the opportunity for comparison to those who have begun to take their first steps in such a vast and still in many ways unexplored field as Sacred Architecture.

The 'Frate Sole' award was therefore also aimed at young architects who had dedicated their degree research to the design of new churches; the Sacred Architecture Prize for Degree Theses was thus established, in its first edition in 2005.

The complexity of the problems inherent in the architectural design of ecclesiastical spaces is such that it is difficult to achieve an ideal synthesis of all the components that make up a church building. Undoubtedly among all of them is the poetic inspiration that makes an architecture the sacred place of mystical exaltation, of the preciousness of the mystery that is lived within liturgical dynamics with a precise community and in a particular place.

The commitment with which the theme of sacred architecture was approached by the students was often significant, and it is meaningful to think that so many young architects, at the end of their university studies, had the will to try their hand at such a fascinating subject.

With these objectives the Costantino Ruggeri International Thesis Award was organised by the Frate Sole Foundation in Pavia, and awarded every two years to a Christian worship church project that is the subject of a master's thesis.

In previous editions, the Prize received 300 entries from international Faculties of Architecture.

The 'Costantino Ruggeri' International Thesis Award is aimed at young people, and it is with the audience of young people, high school and university students, that it intends to dialogue.

I reported of the 'Costantino Ruggeri' International Thesis Award 2023 are:

  • Mauro SerafinFrancesco Da Ros for the Regina Pacis Temple in Giavera del Montello (TV)developed in the university IUAV of Venice with arch. Pierantonio Val as rapporteur and Fr Mirco Miotto as a liturgist co-rapporteur.
  • Dmitri Lisiifor a orthodox spirituality centre in Corso di Porta Ticinese in Milan near the basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore, developed at the Milan Polytechnic with arch. Giancarlo Floridi as rapporteur.

La training and the dialogue between academics e high schoolers will be the themes of the next AWARD DAY of International Thesis Award 'Costantino Ruggeri' 2023.

l reported projects in this edition of the International Thesis Award 'Costantino Ruggeri' were, between September and November, the basis for an ideas competition which involved the classes of Artistic high schools e CAT of the Secondary Schools in the Province of Pavia.

This ideas competition is developed in accordance with the Higher Secondary Schools in the Province of Pavia and sees involved the Brother Sun Foundation - with President arch. Luigi Leoni and the Awards Coordinator arch. Andrea Vaccari, theANCE Pavia - with President ing. arch. Alberto Righini, the Director Rag. Viviana Montagna, and the President of the Group of Young Building Contractors of the Province of Pavia Ing. Alessandro Ottone, the Faculty of Engineering, University of Pavia - with Prof. Roberto De Lotto.

L'intent of this competition is uniting two realities several.

CAT and Liceo Artistico students approach a specific subject with the means proposed by the school didactics and with their work they confront the university world. In this respect, themeeting high school students with the award-winning architects during this cultural and educational moment.

The winning students of the CAT and Liceo Artistico competition will have the opportunity to getting to know and visiting churches designed by Costantino Ruggeri.

Afterwards the programme in the morning of Tuesday 12 December 2023:

Palazzo del Broletto - Conference Room

Moderator. Dr. Alessandro Beltrami

  • 9.30
    - start and institutional greetings
  • 10.00
    - intervention arch. Paolo Russo (Boeri studio) - The challenge of sustainable development in contemporary architecture
  • 10.30
    - speech Prof. Roberto De Lotto (University of Pavia) - The city and its symbols
  • 11.00
    - presentation of the 'Costantino Ruggeri' International Thesis Award           
    - Award ceremony for the two commended projects and presentation by the designers of the two works
  • 11.40
    - presentation of the Architecture and Design Secondary School Award
    - Award ceremony for winning students, presentation of winning projects and dialogue with the two winners of the Thesis Award

Palazzo del Broletto - Conference Room

  • 13.00
    - exhibition opening

A exhibition of participating projects at the 1st edition of the Costantino Ruggeri International Thesis Award and the ideas competition which involved the classes of Artistic high schools e CAT of the Secondary Schools in the Province of Pavia, remains open until Sunday 17 December 2023 at the Discover Space, on the ground floor of the Palace of the Broletto in Pavia with entrance from Piazza della Vittoria.

convegno – Cultura dell’incontro

conference - Culture of encounter

CULTURE OF ENCOUNTER
P. COSTANTINO'S MISSION IN AFRICA

pavia, church Santi Giacomo e Filippo - saturday 26 november 2022, 9.00/13.30

La Brother Sun Foundation at 15th Year of Ascension to Heaven of its Founder, Father Costantino Ruggeri, organises a conference open to technicians, experts and friends on the topic 'Culture of encounter'as expressed in theEncyclical of Pope Francis'Brothers all'.

The word 'culture' indicates something that has penetrated into the people, into their deepest convictions and way of life. If we speak of a 'culture' in the people, it is more than an idea or an abstraction. It encompasses the desires, enthusiasm and ultimately a way of life that characterises that human group. So, to speak of a 'culture of encounter' means that, as a people, we are passionate about wanting to meet, seeking points of contact, building bridges, planning something that involves everyone. This has become an aspiration and a way of life. The subject of such a culture is the people, not a sector of society that aims to keep the rest at peace by professional and media means. (FT, para. 216)

The subject was addressed by Father Costantino Ruggeri from the end of the 1970s and throughout the decade of the 1980s in the Franciscan mission of the Burundiwhere he was called upon to build, with architect. Luigi Leoni, three religious and social complexes.

The time spent in Africa was an opportunity to meet a people and one culture which turned out to be rich in extraordinary human valuescelebrating the beauty of the community. From this experience, Father Costantino drew a commitment not to transfer pre-packaged models, foreign to local culture and traditions, and to create spaces with the face and heart of the land in which he was commissioned to design.

He hoped that the contribution made would give rise to new shapes and volumes inspired by the dwellings and ways of life of the Barundi.

Prophetically, he dreamed that on the same continent could be born who, like the winner of the Pritzker Prize 2022 Diébédo Francis Kéréinterpreting the authentic aspirations of the African population, created spaces designed with the sensitivity of the local community in mind.

L'intense cultural exchange allowed Father Constantine to bring with him into his artistic and human life the sensitivity he had developed during his experience in Burundi: it was enough to enter his studio to enjoy the dozens of masks, sculptures and African handicrafts that enlivened the memory of the communities he met.

The Conference 'Culture of encounter - Fr. Constantine's mission in Africa".sponsored by the Municipality of Pavia and ICOMOS PRERICO (Places of Religion and Ritual), will take place Saturday 26 November 2022 from 9:00 to 13:30 in Paviaat the Church of St James and St Philip in Via Luigi Porta.

Speakers will be:

Luigi LeoniPresident of the Brother Sun Foundation;
Msgr. Luca BressanEpiscopal Vicar for Culture of the Diocese of Milan;
Maria Antonietta Crippalecturer Politecnico di Milano;
Fr Roberto Tagliaferrilecturer at the St Justine Institute of Pastoral Liturgy in Padua;
Ferdinando Zanzotteralecturer Politecnico di Milano.

He will moderate Olimpia Niglio, lecturer at the University of Pavia.

At the end of the conference, the Frate Sole Foundation will be pleased to share a convivial moment at theOsteria del Collegioat 8 Via Luigi Porta.

Un cammino di splendore: il Miracolo della Visione

A Path of Splendour: The Miracle of the Vision

A cinematic journey in stages by Roberto Figazzolo

The review was born in the wake of the The Park of Splendour: Pavia, Certosa and Belgioioso on the Paths. Knowledge, Identity and Discovery of Famous and Undiscovered Places, supported by the Lombardy Region in the framework of the Integrated Cultural Plans (PIC).

Prior to each of these films, videomaker Roberto Figazzolo will present and screen clips 'that miraculously combine faith and architecture, philosophy and beauty, rigour and expressive richness':

29 April 18:30 - Ricotta (Italy 1963) by Pier Paolo Pasolini (35′)
Short films: - Tadao Ando and the Frate Sole Foundation: analysis of an award by Remo Dorigati
- Alvaro Siza and the Church of Santa Maria de Marco de Canaveses (part one)

6 May 18:30 - Andrej Rublev (USSR 1969) by Andrej Tarkovskij (185′)
Short film: Alvaro Siza and the Church of Santa Maria de Marco de Canaveses (part two)

13 May 18:30 - The Seventh Seal (Sweden 1957) by Ingmar Bergman (95′)
Short film: John Pawson's Novi Dvur Monastery Vice Prior Romaric in Czech Republic (part one)

20 May 18:30 - The Blue Trail (Italy 2022) by Gabriele Vacis (90′)
Short film: John Pawson's Novi Dvur Monastery Vice Prior Romaric in Czech Republic (part two)

"In the spring of 2012, on the occasion of the 5th edition of the International Prize for Sacred Architecture organised by the Frate Sole Foundation of Pavia, I was sent to Rome, Porto in Portugal and Novi Dvur in the Czech Republic to collect images and testimonies from the winners of the first four editions of the internationally renowned 'Oscar of Sacred Architecture' held in Pavia every four years.

The experience was very engaging. Especially in Porto and the Czech Republic with the interviews with archistar Alvaro Siza and Friar Romaric, deputy prior of the Novi Dvur Monastery.

In both cases, the very simple, almost Franciscan approach to the subject led the two protagonists to take part in a dense and iconic dialogue, rich in suggestions and very sincere at the same time.

Only after almost ten years, as if through a long distillation process, can I now present these five pills that miraculously combine faith and architecture, philosophy and beauty, rigour and expressive richness."

Text by Roberto Figazzolo.

Tickets are available for purchase: via the online ticket office or at the physical ticket office of the Cineteatro Politeama in Pavia, Corso Cavour 20, which opens half an hour before each screening and on Saturday and Sunday from 15.30 to 21.00

Single ticket 4€ - Subscription to 4 films 10€

Press review:
La Provincia Pavese

Koinè 2021

Koine 2021

La Brother Sun Foundation was invited to participate in Koinèthe international religious art fair, which will be held in Vicenza from 24 to 26 October 2021.

The Frate Sole Foundation will actively participate with meetings and exhibitions:

Monday 25 at 17.30 will discuss the Frate Sole Sacred Architecture Awards with
. Mons. Fabrizio Capanni of Pontifical Council for Culture
. arch. Luigi LeoniPresident of the Brother Sun Foundation
. the winner of the2020 edition (Prize for built churches) arch. Axel Frühauf
. the winner of theedition 2021 (Prize for churches designed during university theses) arch. Francesco Menegato;

Sunday 24 to Tuesday 26 with works of Father Constantine in the dedicated exhibition areas:
. OBJECTS FOR LITURGICAL USE European production scenario;
. THE GLORIOUS MISSIONARY CROSS contemporary interpretations;
. THE LIGHT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT contemporary European stained glass and mosaics;
. THE 'FRIAR SUN' SACRED ARCHITECTURE AWARD Projects, sketches from major editions.

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