Catania upside-down

The several archaeologies, visible in the center of Catania, seem like irrelevant objects, fenced in scattered holes across the town without any common idea. Nevertheless, these treasures are even more valuable for belonging to an extraordinary topographical context which change not only for the physical overlapping of the eras, like it usually happens, but also for the overturning of the spatiotemporal order of the town caused by the action of Etna (it is common to find in Catania the ancient level upper than the current one). The research group of architects which we belong to, is conducting a project about Catania, focusing on his archaeological nature. In 1832 the architect Sebastiano Ittar published the “Pianta Topografica della Città di Catania”. Ittar, in addition to drawing the first orthogonal plan in the history of Catania, draws all the archaeologies known at that time, affirming their active role in the construction of the town. Our purpose is redrawing the city laying the foundation on Ittar’s extraordinary document. “Il Disegno della Città di Catania” aim is to carry the ideas at the base of the Ittar’s plan to the architectural scale, disclosing the capacity of the ancient invisible town to force the shape of the current visible town. The core essence of the research group consists of considering the ancient as “active part” in the construction of the town and its little fragments as gems mounted in the urban pattern, to be reconnected to the life of the town.