House of Poetry

In the peaceful silence of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, where knobby chestnut branches intertwine towards the sky while streams and waterfalls wind across the ground, a small cluster of houses emerges from a quiet hillside.

 

A place of stillness, where the gentle rush of water and the faint rustling of the wind lent their whispers to one of the most visionary poets of twentieth-century Italy.

 

Set against the road and facing the river, Dino Campana’s house was for years the cradle of verses that, musical and fragmentary, painted a faithful portrait of his Marradi, where the broad clearings and boundless landscapes typical of rural Tuscany are interrupted by jagged peaks and imposing chestnut trees.

That same house, uninhabited by the poet’s heirs for over 30 years, is now reopening with a new vision rooted in its history and in the life of the town: to preserve Campana’s memory and inspire new generations of young people to pursue the same dream of creativity, transforming a cornerstone of local tradition into a place where the future of aspiring poets can take root.

 

How can the visual and tormented power of such a unique poet’s verses be translated into exhibition spaces that evoke his memory and rekindle the spark that inspired him? What is the ideal space in which to educate, inspire and welcome writers and poetry enthusiasts?

 

These are the questions that House of Poetry seeks to answer, with the ambition of creating an architectural intervention capable of engaging with the present while remembering the past; not simply a museum, then, but a space for growth and participation, capable of generating cultural and social value beyond the boundaries of the site and establishing Marradi as an international epicenter of contemporary poetry.

YAC and the Municipality of Marradi thank the designers who will embrace this challenge.