Gurdwara in the industrial area in Novellara

Graduation Thesis

110/110 cum Laude

Supervisor: Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Matilde Cassani

The thesis analyses the presence of non-Catholic places in the province of Reggio Nell’Emilia (Italy) to demonstrate the social needs due to the religious pluralism in order to offer an architectural answer. The religious maps of the territory highlight both the quantity of devotees belonging to different religions and the halls of prayer that were born spontaneously: garages, stables, shops, industrial sheds become informal religious places where the sacred and the profane mix together.

This previous study was important to identify two sites where intervene: the first project is dedicated to the large Islamic community which owns very few spots to pray. So, the restoration of the disused furniture factory Mazzali provides a box that is transformed in a Mosque next to a new garden.

Other functions are inserted into the building: a small library, a screening room, a tea hall. 

The second project is the enlargement of the existing Gurdwara in the industrial area of Novellara where the Sikh community currently owns a hall of prayer but it is too small to host the big number of devotees.