Verdi Theatre, Pisa

Description

The restoration of the nineteenth-century Teatro Verdi in Pisa addressed a building degraded by decades of partial repairs, altered decorations, and inadequate safety provisions. The project began with extensive stratigraphic surveys and precise drawings at 1:50 and 1:20, allowing the recovery of the theatre’s original spatial clarity and the preservation of its authentic materials. Wooden floors, beams, and decorated soffits—often damaged or undersized—were consolidated with epoxy, steel inserts, and localized structural stitching, avoiding replacement and safeguarding the richness of the historic construction. Thousands of square metres of vaults, walls, and stucco surfaces were uncovered from later whitewash layers and restored with reversible, minimal retouching. New functional requirements—six safety staircases, improved circulation, modern services for artists and the public—were integrated with light, autonomous metal-and-glass structures that maintain full legibility of the historic fabric. The most significant transformation was the reconnection of the public areas with the vast timber attic: an extraordinary sequence of trusses and the structural shell of the vaulted ceiling, now adapted to host offices and a rehearsal hall. This final, elevated passage reveals the theatre’s “machine” while preserving its material truth and spatial unity.