A peculiar architecture: the open staircase of Naples

Through this work we wish to thoroughly study the “open” staircase which has been a recurrent pattern in Neapolitan architecture since the Renaissance, focusing essentially on minor architectures, to grasp to what extent famous examples and local construction traditions have influenced the architectural language. Some meaningful routes will be identified which can be traced back to different epochs of the construction and the enlargement of the city, and, for each element, the following points will be analysed in detail: reference typology, employed materials, employed construction methods, contemporary legislation, historical information on the building and/or the urban context, modifications suffered. From an operational point of view it will be compiled, for every analysed building, a card for to reassume the fundamental aspects above listed and, contemporarily, an accurate Archive research will be made for having further information on ancient normative, material employees, constructive customs and conception of the structures. To this first phase it will follow a second one concerning the typological/structural interpretation that will lead to define recovery directives of these interesting architectural forms. The structural interpretation will be articulated as a confrontation between the theoretical and practical knowledge of the time, starting from Neapolitan and non-Neapolitan treatises, and the modern numerical methods still in continual evolution.