RE-SHINE Ripafratta – Renovation

RE-SHINE Ripafratta gives new uses to a long-abandoned fortress and its towers, turning a ruin in San Giuliano Terme near Pisa into a place built around climbing and sports. Designed by Filippo Serena and Mattia Contardi, the project evolves around and inside the ruins, weaving fresh facilities through walls that have stood for centuries while keeping the original character of the site intact.

The design goal is to revitalize a place left empty for several years. Rather than erase the old fabric, the architects let the new program grow from what is already there. Centino Tower becomes a supply and information point for hikers, a threshold where visitors prepare for what comes next on the trail. Niccolai Tower is covered with a “hat” that creates a landscape terrace usable in summer and winter alike, framing the surrounding hills. Inside Ripafratta Castle, the inserted structures serve a double role, working both as a service point and as climbing facilities for users.

Renovating a Ruin Without Erasing It

Adaptive reuse of a fortress is one of the more demanding tasks in architecture. A designer has to read the existing masonry, respect its load paths, and add modern functions without overwriting the history embedded in the stone. The challenge sharpens when the new use, climbing and active recreation, brings loads, circulation, and safety needs that the original builders never imagined. The most convincing answers tend to keep old and new legible as separate layers, so a visitor can still feel the age of the walls while using a contemporary facility. This approach is widely discussed in the field of adaptive reuse, where conservation and new construction meet.

Reusing a ruin also reconnects a community with a landmark it had lost. The towers of Ripafratta sit within the Tuscan countryside near Pisa, a region whose history is shaped by fortified hilltop sites. By pairing trail support, terraces, and sport, the scheme treats the fortress not as a frozen monument but as living infrastructure for hikers and climbers. Projects of this kind show how careful renovation can hand an old structure a credible second life. The result reframes Ripafratta as a destination people return to, rather than a forgotten silhouette on the horizon.