Number of Floors: Three main levels and two intermediate levels
Full Site Area: 23,000 square meters (250,000 square feet)
Floor Area: 21,000 square meters (226,000 square feet)
Exhibition Space: 14,000 square meters (150,000 square feet)
Number of Columns in Excavations: 43
Number of Columns in Archaic Gallery: 28
Dimensions of Parthenon Gallery: 39 x 84 meters
Dimensions of the Frieze: 21 x 58 meters
Number of Glass Panels in Parthenon Gallery: 348
Total Area of Glass Panels: 1302 meters2
Materials
Structure: Reinforced concrete and steel
Glass Façade: Purified ‘low iron’ glass with an invisible selective UV coating and printed frit
Inner Core: Precast and cast-in-place concrete with acoustical dampening perforations
Skylights: Frosted glass panels
Railings: Glass panels with steel handrails
Floors: Beige marble for galleries; dark marble for circulation; heat strengthened, laminated safety glass with textured dots to prevent slippage
Displays: Marble pedestals, glass vitrines, and steel niches
Construction Budget: €130 million (approximately $175 million US)
Financing: Construction of the Museum is co-financed by the Hellenic Republic and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Schedule
Competition Announced: Spring 2001
Architect Announcement: September 2001
Design Completed: August 2002
Groundbreaking: September 2003
Building Completion: September 2007
Transfer of Artifacts: September through December 2007
Limited Public Viewing of Installation: Winter 2008
Public opening: June 20, 2009
Signage: Signage has been developed to be both visible and yet to be as discrete as possible, recognizing that signage and wayfinding must not compete with the artifacts.
Theater: A 250 square meter theater with 180 seats is fully equipped with projection facilities and a translation booth.
Café, Terrace, and Store: A 770 square meter restaurant opens onto a public terrace with views of the Acropolis. Shading devices designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects are subtly incorporated into the overall scheme, allowing for year-round use during the day and night. Two 125 square meter shops are located on level +0 and +2.
Landscaping: The 23,000 square meter site is landscaped with local vegetation that blends with the natural flora of the Acropolis slopes. Landscaping is designed to open up the public spaces in and around the museum and to incorporate with the neighborhood. The museum is designed especially for pedestrian visitors, which access points on the north and east sides.
Access: Parking is not provided on site, but is available nearby in the Makriyianni neighborhood. Bus dropoff is accommodated to the south of the museum on Hadjichristou street. Public transit can be accessed from the northeast corner of the block at the Acropolis stop of the Athens Metro.
Awards
• On 13 May 2010, it was awarded the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) Award of Excellence and Sustainability
• On 8 November 2010, the Museum won the British Guild of Travel Writers' (BGTW) award in Globe category for the Best Worldwide Tourism Project for 2010
• The Museum received 2011 AIA (The American Institute of Architects) Institute Honor Award for Architecture
• It was among the six finalists competing for the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – the Mies van der Rohe Award.
• On Friday 14 September 2012 the Acropolis Museum was awarded for its innovative program of the conservation and the restoration of the Caryatids by the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) in Vienna, with the Keck Award 2012
• On 2017, Acropolis museum ranked 8th in the TripAdvisor's Travellers Choice Awards of the 25 Best Museums in the world for 2017.
# Greece , #historic_site , #museum, #interior_design , #lighting , #archeological_site #world_heritage_site , #awards , #glass , #auditorium
@revitalization
Full Site Area: 23,000 square meters (250,000 square feet)
Floor Area: 21,000 square meters (226,000 square feet)
Exhibition Space: 14,000 square meters (150,000 square feet)
Number of Columns in Excavations: 43
Number of Columns in Archaic Gallery: 28
Dimensions of Parthenon Gallery: 39 x 84 meters
Dimensions of the Frieze: 21 x 58 meters
Number of Glass Panels in Parthenon Gallery: 348
Total Area of Glass Panels: 1302 meters2
Materials
Structure: Reinforced concrete and steel
Glass Façade: Purified ‘low iron’ glass with an invisible selective UV coating and printed frit
Inner Core: Precast and cast-in-place concrete with acoustical dampening perforations
Skylights: Frosted glass panels
Railings: Glass panels with steel handrails
Floors: Beige marble for galleries; dark marble for circulation; heat strengthened, laminated safety glass with textured dots to prevent slippage
Displays: Marble pedestals, glass vitrines, and steel niches
Construction Budget: €130 million (approximately $175 million US)
Financing: Construction of the Museum is co-financed by the Hellenic Republic and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Schedule
Competition Announced: Spring 2001
Architect Announcement: September 2001
Design Completed: August 2002
Groundbreaking: September 2003
Building Completion: September 2007
Transfer of Artifacts: September through December 2007
Limited Public Viewing of Installation: Winter 2008
Public opening: June 20, 2009
Signage: Signage has been developed to be both visible and yet to be as discrete as possible, recognizing that signage and wayfinding must not compete with the artifacts.
Theater: A 250 square meter theater with 180 seats is fully equipped with projection facilities and a translation booth.
Café, Terrace, and Store: A 770 square meter restaurant opens onto a public terrace with views of the Acropolis. Shading devices designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects are subtly incorporated into the overall scheme, allowing for year-round use during the day and night. Two 125 square meter shops are located on level +0 and +2.
Landscaping: The 23,000 square meter site is landscaped with local vegetation that blends with the natural flora of the Acropolis slopes. Landscaping is designed to open up the public spaces in and around the museum and to incorporate with the neighborhood. The museum is designed especially for pedestrian visitors, which access points on the north and east sides.
Access: Parking is not provided on site, but is available nearby in the Makriyianni neighborhood. Bus dropoff is accommodated to the south of the museum on Hadjichristou street. Public transit can be accessed from the northeast corner of the block at the Acropolis stop of the Athens Metro.
Awards
• On 13 May 2010, it was awarded the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) Award of Excellence and Sustainability
• On 8 November 2010, the Museum won the British Guild of Travel Writers' (BGTW) award in Globe category for the Best Worldwide Tourism Project for 2010
• The Museum received 2011 AIA (The American Institute of Architects) Institute Honor Award for Architecture
• It was among the six finalists competing for the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – the Mies van der Rohe Award.
• On Friday 14 September 2012 the Acropolis Museum was awarded for its innovative program of the conservation and the restoration of the Caryatids by the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) in Vienna, with the Keck Award 2012
• On 2017, Acropolis museum ranked 8th in the TripAdvisor's Travellers Choice Awards of the 25 Best Museums in the world for 2017.
# Greece , #historic_site , #museum, #interior_design , #lighting , #archeological_site #world_heritage_site , #awards , #glass , #auditorium
@revitalization
The renewal of the building with unique historical value had a dual purpose: the reconstruction of the basically Baroque building with significant medieval parts from the 13th century and its several construction and extension periods during the centuries, by preserving their exciting material, structural and spatial imprints, and at the same time a revitalization that meets today’s demands. While mainly public functions will be implemented on the ground floor and in the basement (restaurant, bookstore, coin museum, etc.), the first floor and the attic provide space for educational and research rooms. Upstairs, the prestigious Baroque enfilade serves administrative, educational and representative functions, and the attic floor becomes the researchers’ workplace.
Covering the courtyards of the building can replace the hall-like space, which would be suitable for events and could play a ground floor-distribution role too. The main thesis of the roofing concept was to keep the courtyard-like feeling and to create them as a homogeneous character for the glass roof as possible. Integrating the courts into the interior had the clearly positive outcome of spatially completing the western court. Here the glazing of the arched openings could be removed, allowing for the return to the original state when the corridors around the court were used as an open „cloister.“ Now the cornices support the steel beams bearing the glass structure, and, in the plane of these beams, controllable white linen lamellas ensure both shading and the required homogeneity, while the channel of the custom-made steel beams conceals the space’s lighting so that is almost invisible during the day. It was an important aspect that the new structure above the cornices should integrate all functional needs, and „float“ over the historic structures as a unified and neutral contemporary element.
The building’s 300 years old Baroque roof was greatly damaged in World War II. Since more than half of it was bombed during World War II, it was necessary to create something new between the three original roof structure parts. In a strange way, the serious destruction of the war did not weaken but strengthened the collage-like nature of the building that developed over hundreds of years. Of course, the destroyed parts of the 300-year-old larch roof structure elements could not be complemented, so they were replaced with another – now contemporary – layer instead. Therefore, when walking in the attic, open Baroque spaces of larger ceiling height and exposed carpentry are alternating with homogeneous new spaces of lower ceiling height. The inhomogeneous solution applied in the roof space is close to the inhomogeneity that can be seen at any point of the building, resulting from the complex spatial nature of the different building periods. World War II damages became an integral, visible and readable part of the building’s history.
#Hungary , #public_space , #lighting , #stair , #awards, #courtyard , #hall
@revitalization
Covering the courtyards of the building can replace the hall-like space, which would be suitable for events and could play a ground floor-distribution role too. The main thesis of the roofing concept was to keep the courtyard-like feeling and to create them as a homogeneous character for the glass roof as possible. Integrating the courts into the interior had the clearly positive outcome of spatially completing the western court. Here the glazing of the arched openings could be removed, allowing for the return to the original state when the corridors around the court were used as an open „cloister.“ Now the cornices support the steel beams bearing the glass structure, and, in the plane of these beams, controllable white linen lamellas ensure both shading and the required homogeneity, while the channel of the custom-made steel beams conceals the space’s lighting so that is almost invisible during the day. It was an important aspect that the new structure above the cornices should integrate all functional needs, and „float“ over the historic structures as a unified and neutral contemporary element.
The building’s 300 years old Baroque roof was greatly damaged in World War II. Since more than half of it was bombed during World War II, it was necessary to create something new between the three original roof structure parts. In a strange way, the serious destruction of the war did not weaken but strengthened the collage-like nature of the building that developed over hundreds of years. Of course, the destroyed parts of the 300-year-old larch roof structure elements could not be complemented, so they were replaced with another – now contemporary – layer instead. Therefore, when walking in the attic, open Baroque spaces of larger ceiling height and exposed carpentry are alternating with homogeneous new spaces of lower ceiling height. The inhomogeneous solution applied in the roof space is close to the inhomogeneity that can be seen at any point of the building, resulting from the complex spatial nature of the different building periods. World War II damages became an integral, visible and readable part of the building’s history.
#Hungary , #public_space , #lighting , #stair , #awards, #courtyard , #hall
@revitalization
NO.91.
Empire Stores / S9 Architecture
CLIENT: Midtown Equities, HK Organization and Rockwood Capital.
SIZE: 450 000 SF.
LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY, US
.STATUS: Built 2017.
TEAM: Architects: S9 Architecture, Studio V.
Landscape Designer: Future Green Studio.
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates.
MEP Engineer: Mottola Rini Engineers.
LEED Consultant: Spiezle Architectural Group.
Lighting Consultant: Tillotson Design Associates.
AWARDS: Urban Land Institute. Awards for Excellence in Development. 2018. NYC x Design On the Boards Awards. 2017.
For over 150 years, between the iconic Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges on the Brooklyn waterfront, lay seven beautiful historic brick structures. These Civil-War-era structures were named after their use as coffee “stores” or storage warehouses, and for the epithet of a growing state: the Empire Stores.
Studio V's designs inject new life into the structures. The designs combine creative contemporary architecture with exacting historic rehabilitation, and combine overlapping uses with public spaces that reveal the inhabitants and historic structures. On top of the building’s extensive green roofs sit two-story glass and steel additions with gardens and terraces frame stunning views of the surrounding bridges. A glass and steel courtyard and passage slices through the historic structures, reconnecting the community cut off from its waterfront. The public passage reveals original sparkling schist walls, around which a spiraling steel and concrete staircase culminates in a public rooftop park revealing a stunning Manhattan Skyline. The unique design combines tech offices and public spaces with cultural and hospitality amenities to create a unique interface between work and play, public spaces and private commerce, that perfectly expresses the ethos of creative contemporary Brooklyn.
Designing an oxymoron isn’t easy: synthesizing old and new, honoring an industrial structure while reinventing it and preserving history while creating meaningful new designed to be representative of our time and culture. This is the design of Empire Stores: speaking to Brooklyn’s historic past, expressing its vibrant culture today, and pointing the way to its future.
1977
The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission designates Fulton Ferry as a historic district, protecting Empire Stores from demolition.
2013
After years of failed attempts to revitalize the deteriorating warehouse, Brooklyn Bridge Park and developers Midtown Equities announce plans for an adaptive reuse of Empire Stores. “All across the waterfront, we are reclaiming and renewing areas that have long been abandoned or neglected, and Empire Stores and the Tobacco Warehouse are the latest examples of that work,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the time.
2017
Empire Stores opens to the public with 360,000 square feet of restaurant, retail, office, and event space. The building’s historic charm is preserved with original architectural details like the iconic brick masonry and iron-shuttered façade, schist stonewalling, and, as a nod to its heritage, coffee chutes, and hoisting wheels.
#USA , #public_space , #lighting , #stair , #awards, #courtyard , #industrial , #store , #office , #public_space , #restaurant , #interior_design
@revitalization
Empire Stores / S9 Architecture
CLIENT: Midtown Equities, HK Organization and Rockwood Capital.
SIZE: 450 000 SF.
LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY, US
.STATUS: Built 2017.
TEAM: Architects: S9 Architecture, Studio V.
Landscape Designer: Future Green Studio.
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates.
MEP Engineer: Mottola Rini Engineers.
LEED Consultant: Spiezle Architectural Group.
Lighting Consultant: Tillotson Design Associates.
AWARDS: Urban Land Institute. Awards for Excellence in Development. 2018. NYC x Design On the Boards Awards. 2017.
For over 150 years, between the iconic Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges on the Brooklyn waterfront, lay seven beautiful historic brick structures. These Civil-War-era structures were named after their use as coffee “stores” or storage warehouses, and for the epithet of a growing state: the Empire Stores.
Studio V's designs inject new life into the structures. The designs combine creative contemporary architecture with exacting historic rehabilitation, and combine overlapping uses with public spaces that reveal the inhabitants and historic structures. On top of the building’s extensive green roofs sit two-story glass and steel additions with gardens and terraces frame stunning views of the surrounding bridges. A glass and steel courtyard and passage slices through the historic structures, reconnecting the community cut off from its waterfront. The public passage reveals original sparkling schist walls, around which a spiraling steel and concrete staircase culminates in a public rooftop park revealing a stunning Manhattan Skyline. The unique design combines tech offices and public spaces with cultural and hospitality amenities to create a unique interface between work and play, public spaces and private commerce, that perfectly expresses the ethos of creative contemporary Brooklyn.
Designing an oxymoron isn’t easy: synthesizing old and new, honoring an industrial structure while reinventing it and preserving history while creating meaningful new designed to be representative of our time and culture. This is the design of Empire Stores: speaking to Brooklyn’s historic past, expressing its vibrant culture today, and pointing the way to its future.
1977
The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission designates Fulton Ferry as a historic district, protecting Empire Stores from demolition.
2013
After years of failed attempts to revitalize the deteriorating warehouse, Brooklyn Bridge Park and developers Midtown Equities announce plans for an adaptive reuse of Empire Stores. “All across the waterfront, we are reclaiming and renewing areas that have long been abandoned or neglected, and Empire Stores and the Tobacco Warehouse are the latest examples of that work,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the time.
2017
Empire Stores opens to the public with 360,000 square feet of restaurant, retail, office, and event space. The building’s historic charm is preserved with original architectural details like the iconic brick masonry and iron-shuttered façade, schist stonewalling, and, as a nod to its heritage, coffee chutes, and hoisting wheels.
#USA , #public_space , #lighting , #stair , #awards, #courtyard , #industrial , #store , #office , #public_space , #restaurant , #interior_design
@revitalization
NO.179
The Reconstruction of the Basilica of Siponto
/ Edoardo Tresoldi
RENOVATION
•
• Architects: Edoardo Tresoldi
• Year: 2016
• Archaeological Park of Siponto
Manfredonia (FG), Italy
• Permanent installation
Commissioned by Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism
• Awards: "Gold Medal for Italian Architecture" collective show, curated by Lorenza Baroncelli
Triennale Milano, 2018
The basilica of Siponto [...] in Italy’s Puglia region, has long been easy to miss—just another church among the thousands around the country. But these days, the 12th century structure at-tracts a crowd, sometimes even queues. [...]
Art reconstructs time
Archaeology meets contemporary art in the landscape of the Gargano.
The Basilica di Siponto by Edoardo Tresoldi has been awarded the “Gold Medal for Italian Architec-ture – Special Prize to Commission,” considered the most prestigious award in Italian architecture.
The wire mesh sculpture reinterprets the volumes of an Early Christian basilica which formerly sat on the site of the sculpture, adjacent to an existing Romanesque church. The scheme serves as a “bridge towards the memory of the place” allowing the public to contemplate time and history.
The Basilica was inaugurated in March 2016, and has since captivated worldwide attention, provok-ing discussions on new scenarios for the preservation and enhancement of archaeological heritage.
The award follows another accolade bestowed on the Basilica, which was awarded the Riccar-do Francovich Archaeological Prize in 2016 for acknowledging “the site’s capacity to combine aca-demic rigor with an effective communication to the non-specialized audience.”
The intervention realized in the Archaeological Park of Siponto reinterprets the volumes of the an-cient Early Christian basilica located close to the existing Romanesque church, which was erected 600 years later. Promoted by the MIBACT Regional Secretariat and the Archaeological Superintend-ency of Apulia, the project is linked to a conservative intervention.
The majestic wire mesh transparent sculpture presents itself as a contemporary artefact perfectly integrated with the surroundings, and establishes a new dialogue between ancient and contempo-rary, opening up new scenarios for preservation and enhancement of the historical and archaeologi-cal heritage. Detached by strong visual and volumetric decompositions and cherished by the atmos-pheric factors, the installation outlines as a bridge towards the memory of the place and allows the public to relate with time and history.
The visual power is based on the essential necessity to coincide art, landscape, history and sur-rounding environment, and configures itself as an artistic development of the classical concept of restoration, an innovative reinterpretation of archaeology realized with the support of contemporary art.
#Italy, #basilica, #church, #instalation, #lighting, #mesh, #museum, #archeological_park, #archeological_site, #ruin, #landmark, #sculpture, #awards
@revitalization
The Reconstruction of the Basilica of Siponto
/ Edoardo Tresoldi
RENOVATION
•
• Architects: Edoardo Tresoldi
• Year: 2016
• Archaeological Park of Siponto
Manfredonia (FG), Italy
• Permanent installation
Commissioned by Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism
• Awards: "Gold Medal for Italian Architecture" collective show, curated by Lorenza Baroncelli
Triennale Milano, 2018
The basilica of Siponto [...] in Italy’s Puglia region, has long been easy to miss—just another church among the thousands around the country. But these days, the 12th century structure at-tracts a crowd, sometimes even queues. [...]
Art reconstructs time
Archaeology meets contemporary art in the landscape of the Gargano.
The Basilica di Siponto by Edoardo Tresoldi has been awarded the “Gold Medal for Italian Architec-ture – Special Prize to Commission,” considered the most prestigious award in Italian architecture.
The wire mesh sculpture reinterprets the volumes of an Early Christian basilica which formerly sat on the site of the sculpture, adjacent to an existing Romanesque church. The scheme serves as a “bridge towards the memory of the place” allowing the public to contemplate time and history.
The Basilica was inaugurated in March 2016, and has since captivated worldwide attention, provok-ing discussions on new scenarios for the preservation and enhancement of archaeological heritage.
The award follows another accolade bestowed on the Basilica, which was awarded the Riccar-do Francovich Archaeological Prize in 2016 for acknowledging “the site’s capacity to combine aca-demic rigor with an effective communication to the non-specialized audience.”
The intervention realized in the Archaeological Park of Siponto reinterprets the volumes of the an-cient Early Christian basilica located close to the existing Romanesque church, which was erected 600 years later. Promoted by the MIBACT Regional Secretariat and the Archaeological Superintend-ency of Apulia, the project is linked to a conservative intervention.
The majestic wire mesh transparent sculpture presents itself as a contemporary artefact perfectly integrated with the surroundings, and establishes a new dialogue between ancient and contempo-rary, opening up new scenarios for preservation and enhancement of the historical and archaeologi-cal heritage. Detached by strong visual and volumetric decompositions and cherished by the atmos-pheric factors, the installation outlines as a bridge towards the memory of the place and allows the public to relate with time and history.
The visual power is based on the essential necessity to coincide art, landscape, history and sur-rounding environment, and configures itself as an artistic development of the classical concept of restoration, an innovative reinterpretation of archaeology realized with the support of contemporary art.
#Italy, #basilica, #church, #instalation, #lighting, #mesh, #museum, #archeological_park, #archeological_site, #ruin, #landmark, #sculpture, #awards
@revitalization
NO.181
Convent Saint François / Amelia Tavella Architectes
MONASTERY, RESTORATION, EXTENSION
•
• Architects: Amelia Tavella Architectes
• Area: 1000 m²
• Year: 2021
• Manufacturers: Schuco, Terre Cuite des Launes
• Lead Architect: Amelia Tavella
• Acoustic Consulting: Acoustique & Conseil
• Structural Engineer: ISB
• Historic Building Advisor: A-C Perrot
• Economist: Ingenia
• Fluids Engineers: G2I
• City: Sainte-Lucie-de-Tallano
• Country: France
• Awards: TECU ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2022
An intervention of rehabilitation and extension leads to a reflection on the theme of conservation in a process of metamorphosis that embraces the ruin and returns it to contemporaneity.
The complex, perched in the wild Corsican landscape amidst rocks, woods, olive groves and small villages, appears as a fortress in which the passage of time and inactivity have allowed nature to freely take possession of the building, almost acting, before its resurrection, as a protective “armour” and structural support, like the roots of a fig tree that have become an integral part of the façade.
Here, the architect chose to conserve the ruins and replace the missing part of the volume with a perforated copper structure that re-proposes the sil-houette of the pre-existing building, while declaring the contemporary char-acter of the ex-novo building as the site of a cultural center (“Maison du Territoire”).
The choice of copper was justified by the material’s durability and ability to transform over time from a tactile and chromatic point of view, allowing the composition to narrate an evolving tale beyond any intent of “crystallizing” history.
The walls of the copper building, perforated with small panels that allow light to filter into the interior corridors, evoke the suggestion of a mashrabiyya – the traditional grid used in the architecture of Arab coun-tries to facilitate natural ventilation and control lighting – or of the stained-glass window of a church, with vibrant plays of light and shadow projected onto the interior stone walls.
A work that, tiptoeing in the footsteps of the past, exudes love for the place and its historical memory, for the building and its natural transformation from what it was into what it will be and into what it will one day no longer be, in the intimate conviction of impermanence as the only possible form of reality.
#France, #Corsica, #monastery, #convent, #ruin, #extention, #restoration, #rehabilitation, #moucharabieh, #mashrabiyya #copper, #cultural_center, #awards
@revitalization
Convent Saint François / Amelia Tavella Architectes
MONASTERY, RESTORATION, EXTENSION
•
• Architects: Amelia Tavella Architectes
• Area: 1000 m²
• Year: 2021
• Manufacturers: Schuco, Terre Cuite des Launes
• Lead Architect: Amelia Tavella
• Acoustic Consulting: Acoustique & Conseil
• Structural Engineer: ISB
• Historic Building Advisor: A-C Perrot
• Economist: Ingenia
• Fluids Engineers: G2I
• City: Sainte-Lucie-de-Tallano
• Country: France
• Awards: TECU ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2022
An intervention of rehabilitation and extension leads to a reflection on the theme of conservation in a process of metamorphosis that embraces the ruin and returns it to contemporaneity.
The complex, perched in the wild Corsican landscape amidst rocks, woods, olive groves and small villages, appears as a fortress in which the passage of time and inactivity have allowed nature to freely take possession of the building, almost acting, before its resurrection, as a protective “armour” and structural support, like the roots of a fig tree that have become an integral part of the façade.
Here, the architect chose to conserve the ruins and replace the missing part of the volume with a perforated copper structure that re-proposes the sil-houette of the pre-existing building, while declaring the contemporary char-acter of the ex-novo building as the site of a cultural center (“Maison du Territoire”).
The choice of copper was justified by the material’s durability and ability to transform over time from a tactile and chromatic point of view, allowing the composition to narrate an evolving tale beyond any intent of “crystallizing” history.
The walls of the copper building, perforated with small panels that allow light to filter into the interior corridors, evoke the suggestion of a mashrabiyya – the traditional grid used in the architecture of Arab coun-tries to facilitate natural ventilation and control lighting – or of the stained-glass window of a church, with vibrant plays of light and shadow projected onto the interior stone walls.
A work that, tiptoeing in the footsteps of the past, exudes love for the place and its historical memory, for the building and its natural transformation from what it was into what it will be and into what it will one day no longer be, in the intimate conviction of impermanence as the only possible form of reality.
#France, #Corsica, #monastery, #convent, #ruin, #extention, #restoration, #rehabilitation, #moucharabieh, #mashrabiyya #copper, #cultural_center, #awards
@revitalization