Ungers, After All

80 pages, Italian/English

Following the 1968 earthquake in Sicily, plans were produced for the total reconstruction of the destroyed town of Gibellina, inspired by the models of the English New Towns. After an initial phase in which international architects and artists participated in the urban redesign, in the late 1970s a series of seminars and workshops was held at the University of Palermo to take stock of the reconstruction. Oswald Mathias Ungers (1926–2007) was then called to design the town’s central area, which was still undefined. His Civic Centre proposal reflected on the relationship between built and public space, and between city, monument, and history. Ultimately, however, little was realised.