The 8 and the Taranta. An Urban project “Ad Quadratum” for Melpignano (LE)

The project for a new Plaza for the Taranta Festival in Melpignano (LE), presented at APLIMAT conference 2019, is developed in the framework of the activities of the research about the Measure and the Project, which has a strong mathematical issue because it takes into a close relationship geometry, number, music and shape. The related design method gives origin to a proposal to reshape the area in which the concert of folk music named Taranta takes place in Melpignano, a small town in the South of Italy. The research steps consisted on the study of the cultural context and description of the soundscape aspect of the place; on the geometric analysis of the site and of the urban structure from which we have derived the historical measure; and on the general knowledge of the myths belonging to the local culture, first of all that linked to heal the bite of the Tarantola spider. The derived historical measure equivalent to 80 “palmi napoletani” and the recurrence of the number 8 allowed us to construct a geometric grid structuring the project “ad quadratum”. The paper presents the first layout of the general plan of the project and the first hypothesis of the architectural elements composing it.