Le Murate - HFF! (PIPs)

Florence's old jail, known colloquially as "Le Murate" (the Walled-in)*, was gradually restructured between 2001 and 2010 and turned into a residential complex (with some spaces used for public functions). The architectural design maintained, and in a sense "played" with, the institutional look of the old buildings, while contriving ways to add some "relief" to the old cells by adding originally shaped balconies and bow windows, and by repurposing as balconies/hanging gardens the old gangways that connected different cell blocks (see first PIP). Large steel bracings were used inside to open up the walls connecting cells in order to create larger rooms and apartments.

* The vernacular name of the jail does not, however, refer to the prison inmates, but rather to the original inhabitants of the cells: before being turned into a jail, this complex was in fact a convent for cloistered nuns and was originally built as a complex of cells, with only a few large common areas.

HAPPY FENCE FRIDAY and may you be as free as a bird this weekend!