ERMA TENE A Place for the Monteverdi Festival
Concept ERMA TENE proposes the careful adaptation of the Church of SS. Marcellino e Pietro in Cremona as a flexible venue for the Monteverdi Festival. The project begins from listening: listening to the building, its material discontinuities, its acoustic character and the traces left by successive transformations. The church is not treated as an empty container, but as a fragile spatial organism whose continued use depends on measured acts of care. Minimum intervention The design avoids a conventional fit-out and concentrates the new programme within a limited number of autonomous elements. A floating technical floor is laid above the historic pavement as a dry and reversible construction. It distributes new loads, conceals accessible services and provides the geometry required for seating, performance and exhibition configurations without cutting into the existing fabric. New and old remain distinct, legible and materially compatible. Survey and diagnosis The proposal is grounded in a photogrammetric and geometric survey of the nave, vaults and roof structure. Crack patterns, surface decay, moisture and construction discontinuities are mapped as evidence rather than imperfections to be hidden. Structural, hygrothermal and acoustic readings define the limits within which the new intervention can operate, linking conservation decisions to the actual behaviour of the building. Adaptable ground The raised floor acts as a second inhabitable surface. Its modular system can remain level, rise to form a stepped auditorium or generate local platforms for performers and temporary installations. The church can therefore accommodate concerts, rehearsals, lectures, exhibitions and everyday visits while retaining the continuity of the nave. Adaptability is achieved through movement within the new system, not through repeated alteration of the historic architecture. Technological columns A family of slender opaline-glass columns gathers the functions that would otherwise be dispersed across walls and decorative surfaces. Lighting, air extraction, sound reinforcement, emergency information and fire-safety equipment are contained within inspectable steel frames. The columns operate simultaneously as technical infrastructure, orientation devices and contemporary presences: recognisable as new elements, yet calibrated to the rhythm and vertical proportions of the church. Environmental integration Ventilation ducts and radiant systems are integrated beneath the floating floor, while air is returned through the technological columns. This concentrated distribution reduces visual interference and keeps maintenance independent from the historic fabric. Acoustic studies informed the position of performers, audience and supplementary sound devices, allowing the reverberant character of the church to support musical experience without becoming an uncontrolled limitation. Conservation strategy The conservation programme distinguishes structural consolidation, repair of plaster and masonry, care of decorative apparatus, restoration of openings and protection of liturgical furnishings. Interventions are local, compatible and proportionate to the observed condition. Rather than pursuing an idealised reconstruction, the project preserves the legibility of time while ensuring safety, continuity of use and environmental stability. Threshold The intervention extends to the relationship between the church and the city. The entrance is understood as a public threshold connected to the cultural geography of the Monteverdi Festival. A more accessible and recognisable approach strengthens the presence of the church without turning its surroundings into a separate architectural object. Credits Project team: Cristian Casiraghi, Federico Martorana, Anita Rizzi, Arturo delli Ponti, Chiara Tabladini. Professors: Angelo Giuseppe Landi, Annalisa Galante. Politecnico di Milano, Laboratory of Design for the Conservation of Built Heritage, A.A. 2025/2026.