Vacone . A small center of only 237 inhabitants on a 500 meters hill dominating a deep and narrow valley of the Sabina. An observatory overlooking an expanse of chestnut woods lost at sight. A place out of the touristic circuits in an uncontaminated natural environment.

The inhabited area is perched on the mountain following its accented natural slopes up to the modest size of the castle. Strongly attached to its own traditions and deeply proud of its identity .

In the upper part of the town, right on the side of the Castle, is one of the two accesses to the inhabited center; its transformation into a paved square for buses parking and maneuvering has altered the fragile pre­ existing balance, transforming it into a non-place.

The administration feels the need to restore its values and , through the architecture, to rediscover the meaning of its own places and to use their extraordinary evocative potential to return it to the citizens. Counting on very limited economic resources, we obtain a small loan from Regione Lazio (200,000 euros) which,due to the perseverance of the administrators ,were preserved in spite of several adjustments in the regional budget, allowing the intervention to be carried out.

Although a change in the Municipal Council, the project was so strongly felt that it was sent forward until its complete realization.

This intense determination was understood by both the designer and the firm who felt they were involved in the „mission“. It is precisely this alchemy of common feelings that allows us to complete the realization of what appears to be an impossible task.

The architectural result captures the great emotion generated by the work. Everything appears balanced in an atmosphere where time is suspended.

It is an architecture made up of few things, all reduced to the essential: the square seems to float in the vast empty space: a rarefied space of silence and meditation, a place in which to find yourselves .