Torna a Surriento, Ritorna O Torre
Reviving the Minerva Tower
Type architectural, Watch tower
Location Punta della Campanella, Italy
Category Competition Project, Group work
Year Master of 2nd year summer, 2025
The Minerva Tower, located at Punta della Campanella on the edge of the Sorrento Peninsula, has stood for centuries against wind and sea, serving as a sentinel on the cli that signaled danger. The purpose of this reuse proposal is to honor the tower’s historical and symbolic signi cance while presenting a realistic strategy for bringing an abandoned structure back into use. The project seeks to revive the site’s historical memory, reintegrating the tower into the coastal system and adapting it into an artists’ residency to ensure its continuous life. The idea is to respect the symbolic meaning and form of the past, while layering new programs that allow it to function today. The existing masonry will be carefully restored to recover its original presence, and upon it, the tower’s former functions will be reinterpreted. A vertical-axis wind turbine will be installed at the top to harness the strong coastal winds, and above it, a lighthouse will once again take on the role of maritime signaling. The energy produced will sustain the operation of both the lighthouse and the artists’ residency in a self-su cient cycle.
This type of wind turbine features a vertical axis, enabling power generation regardless of wind direction. It has low maintenance costs and can operate even at low wind speed
Reviving the historic Minerva Tower at Punta
the new lighthouse rekindles its original role, becoming once again the shining beacon of Sorrento vertical-axis wind turbine crowns the historic watchtower, enabling the atelier to achieve energy self
Savonius Type Wind Turbine
Luce di Sorrento
della Campanella,