Restoration project and functional adaptation of the ex-Compagnia Battilani

In 2004 the University of Florence decided to transfer the administrative offices of the Department of Architecture to the premises of the ex-Compagnia Battilani. The church and hospital were originally built around the year 1490, whereas the construction of the houses for renting, destined to ensure the sufficient income for maintaining the complex, happened after that, and up to the 17th century. The church, composed of only one nave and approximately 10 metres high, is characterised by a raised presbytery and a double layer roof with exposed trusses on wooden corbels. Eight arched windows with sandstone cornices let the light in. In addition to interventions for reducing humidity, the project envisages in particular the re-opening of blocked doors and windows, and the restoration of the pietra serena frames, the consolidation of the precious exposed wooden trusses, and the recovery, both in the church and in the sacristy, of the ancient plasters and murals that emerge to the surface in the interior walls.