il fonte

ReuseItaly is an interdisciplinary platform dedicated to the research, preservation, and adaptive reuse of abandoned religious heritage in Italy. Entered with Ida Fink in January 2026, the competition transforms the ruined church of Santa Maria di Settefonti into a spatial and sensory landscape where water, movement, and architecture reconnect the ruin with its historical and environmental context.

Sette Fonti, seven wells, refers to water as the source of community, orientation and life on this site along the Flaminia Minor pilgrimage route. A narrow opening in the roof allows rainwater to enter the heart of the church as a controlled vertical gesture, collected in a reservoir beneath the central space and made perceptible through sound, humidity, and temperature. During heavy rainfall, excess water is guided over the lower ruins, transforming them into a living water landscape; in dry conditions the opening remains as a slit of light connecting interior and sky.

The new architecture is a minimalist wooden structure of regional materials that follows the geometry of the existing ruins and deliberately ends where they begin. Within the tower, microphones amplify the sound of flowing water, carrying the presence of the site outward to passing pilgrims and hikers.