PanHouse Cittareale School

Context

In August 2016, earthquakes shook middle Italy in Amatrice and Norcia. Italy has always been a country with seismic activity, but we don’t have the same building culture as Japan or Taiwan.

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The event devastated small villages, some of them also famous for tourism, like Norcia, the hometown of Saint Benedict, or Amatrice, well known for an Italian sauce for pasta called Amatriciana, which combines tomato, pig’s cheek, and pecorino for a divine taste.

By early September, as Urania Group, we were involved in conversations with humanitarian associations, who were interested in our PanHouse+ system. We could deliver high-performance, permanent buildings very quickly.

Our project was built in a tiny village of Cittareale, a small community of just over 400 inhabitants scattered in the mountains.

Challenge

The main challenge was to provide a permanent, safe educational facility for the community in the shortest possible time, while ensuring the highest quality and safety standards in a seismically active area.

Solution

I took the project’s lead, utilizing tools like Microsoft Project and our ERP to verify all constraints and manage the complex logistics. The project required constant travel to Cittareale (a 4-hour trip one way) and close coordination with local stakeholders.

During the construction, we experienced another significant earthquake on October 30th, 2016, which reinforced the importance of our mission and the need for seismic-resistant structures.

Results

• Completed the 260-square-meter school building in just 19 days
• Created the first permanent building after the Amatrice earthquake
• Provided a safe, modern educational facility for the local community
• Demonstrated the effectiveness of prefabricated construction in post-disaster recovery

Insights

This project was more than just construction - it was about community resilience and hope. Living among these people for a month, who were attending school in a tent, we personally understood how education is the fulcrum for building a better future and overcoming adversity.

The experience taught us valuable lessons about:

• The importance of rapid response in crisis situations
• The power of prefabricated construction in emergency scenarios
• The role of education infrastructure in community recovery
• The human aspect of construction projects

The school became a symbol of renewal and resilience for the community, acting as a catalyst for the scattered mountain community’s recovery following the earthquake.