NOUS network has received a research funding from the Campania Region for the project “Un padiglione temporaneo per ripensare la città / A temporary pavilion to rethink the city”, admitted for financial support under the “V Avviso Pubblico per la concessione di contributi finalizzati alla promozione della qualità dell’architettura – Annualità 2025” according to the rankings approved by Decree No. 38/2026.

Project timeline
1-08-2026 > 31-12-2028

Budget
21,000€

Project team
Mattia Cocozza, Damiano Di Mele, Claudia Cavallo, Marco Felicioni, Elena Sofia Moretti, Nicola Guida, Anna Veronese

Expected outcomes
Can contemporary architecture find new opportunities for realization within the consolidated city? Can architecture continue to represent the emerging forms of urban life? And what kinds of spaces do communities feel are lacking today?

European cities, and Italian cities in particular, provide a key reference model for the relational dimension of urban space. For centuries, they have translated into built form the habit of extending private life into open spaces and collective places. Streets, squares, neighbourhood spaces, courtyards, and gardens have traditionally intertwined with buildings, creating an extraordinary richness and variety of spaces to inhabit.

The ability of the historic city to continue building upon itself and to offer an ever-renewed urban experience, while remaining deeply imbued with memory, seems today to have been interrupted by the dynamics of the “museum city”, in which tourism ultimately erodes the vitality of places of encounter, crystallising them and inhibiting their potential for transformation.
Against the background of these theoretical and critical considerations, the project will be structured into a series of phases aimed at the conception, physical construction, and activation of a temporary pavilion within a public space of the consolidated city.

During the design and self-build phase, the workshop will provide both an educational and hands-on experience, involving students, recent graduates, and young professionals in an initial approach to the processes of construction. The pavilion will also provide an opportunity to experiment with new reversible and sustainable construction techniques, in collaboration with companies and firms operating in the construction sector.
This phase will be supported by a theoretical and critical reflection on the role of ephemeral pavilions as catalysts for urban transformation: from temporary scenic structures to experimental spaces capable of anticipating future trends and offering alternative ways of experiencing the city.

The second phase of the project will involve local communities on two different levels. On the one hand, the pavilion will offer residents and occasional users the direct experience of a tangible, albeit temporary, urban transformation; on the other, the installation will provide an accessible space in which to develop a cultural programme aimed at fostering debate on the characteristics, languages, and potential of contemporary architecture. The programme will include participatory discussion tables and public talks focusing on the culture of architecture.