In the Second Cloister of Santa Croce, without touching the lawn

Three scaffold-tube structures on the historic lawn of a Renaissance cloister in Florence. No digging, no concrete: screwed in, used and taken out.

The Second Cloister is part of the monumental complex of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence: a two-storey Renaissance loggia around a lawn. In September 2026, during the Genius Loci festival, the cloister hosted an event with an installation of climbing plants.

Three scaffold-tube structures were needed, with two jobs: to increase safety and to support the climbing plants of the installation. The difficulty was underneath: a historic lawn inside a monument, where nobody digs and nobody pours concrete.

A lawn that cannot be opened up

Free-standing scaffolds have always been held in place with ballast or concrete footings: a method that, since T-Block, is outdated in most cases. In a monumental cloister, moreover, a footing is out of the question: it would mean digging up the lawn, pouring concrete and then breaking it out when the event ends.

With screw foundations the lawn is only passed through: each T-Block goes into the ground by screwing, without removing soil and without leaving material to dispose of.

Four galvanized T-Block ground screws lying on the lawn of the Second Cloister of Santa Croce, ready to install, with the arcaded loggia behind. — Before installation: the T-Block on the cloister lawn. Four for each structure, twelve in all.

The scaffold tube goes straight into a T-Block made for that tube

The model used is the headless T-Block for a Ø48 post, the diameter of scaffold tube: the top is a sleeve into which the upright slides and is locked by the side nuts. No plates, brackets or special parts are needed: the scaffold is assembled with its usual couplers.

Once installed, all you can see of the foundation system is the top of the T-Block at grass level, with the upright inside it.

Headless T-Block for a Ø48 post flush with the lawn, with the scaffold tube inserted and locked by the side nuts; the cloister behind. — The T-Block for a Ø48 post at grass level: the scaffold tube slides in and locks, with no plates and no concrete.

Screwed in, used, taken out

The three structures stand for as long as the event lasts. When the installation ends the scaffold is dismantled, the T-Block are unscrewed and the lawn goes back to how it was: the grass closes over the screw holes and no trace is left.

For a protected site this is the difference that matters: the work is an installation, not a building operation that leaves something in the ground.

Scaffold-tube frame on the lawn of the Second Cloister of Santa Croce, in front of two arches of the Renaissance loggia with their stone roundels. — One of the three structures, under the loggia: it comes down at the end of the event and the lawn stays as it was.

Why this case matters

Cloisters, historic gardens, squares and archaeological areas host more and more events, exhibitions and temporary works, and they can almost never be dug. A foundation that screws in and screws out makes it possible to put up a structure where concrete is not allowed — and to take it down leaving the place as we found it.

Scaffolding and props Headless T-Block for Ø48 posts Events and installations

Other projects

Two large white giraffe sculptures, each with a crystal chandelier hanging from its neck, on the lawn of the cloister of the Università Statale di Milano, with an arcaded loggia and columns.

Design and events

Road signs and roadside warning panels, without opening up a work site

Do you have a project with the same constraints?

Send us the project, the type of ground and the loads: we reply with the anchoring layout and the right T-Block^® models. If your case is like one of these, we will tell you — and if it is not, we will tell you that too.

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