MILITARY MUSEUM

Capo d’Orso, Italy, 2018

competition

project team:
alessandro pasini, paola renda, giovanni palmiotto, veronica minucci, arianna paris

The BATTERIA DI CAPO D’ORSO museum complex is a project in which reuse and new construction overlap and intertwine to create an organic system of different functions through the reuse of existing spaces and buildings and the construction of new elements.

The heart of the project,is the Forte di Capo d’Orso, built in the 19th century to protect the sea arm in front of the Maddalena archipelago. The building serves as the catalyst and generator element of strenght for the whole system.

The building, located at the top of a rocky relief, can be reached through a path that unfolds between the Mediterranean scrub, the granite reliefs and abandoned military buildings. The latter are characterized by a high fragmentation at the typological level, as well as construction age, and are in a very bad state of maintenance.

The program is aiming to create a museum complex alive and in strong connection with the territory, to intercept the diversified tourist flows visiting the area. The program includes:

  • An infopoint, close to the car park, right at the entrance of the museum complex

  • A Farmers market, to value the local production

  • Space for events, to serve as reception space

  • A diffused facility Hotel, with a different level of service and accommodation, to host trekkers as well as a more luxury tourism;

  • food court area including Restaurants and Bars, with open and air spaces, to enjoy the stunning panorama;

  • A research center including a library, as a natural extension of the museum services;

  • An open air auditorium using the natural conformation of the ground, for spring and summer concert with the beautiful scenography of the surrounding nature;

  • the Military Museum, thought as an hybrid space, with a collection to be hosted inside the fortress and a visiting path of the fortress itself

  • the Sailors’ Memorial, dedicated to the death of seas, thay are sailors, slaves, migrants, fishermams. Simple rooms without ceiling, surrounded by bronze tubes. Sited on the roof of the fortress the memorial is facing the infamous Bocche di Bonifacio sound, where throught the ages several shipwreck took place.

The need to install this very heterogeneous program in a varied context led to the definition of the the strategy. The strategy consist in structuring a system that develops along a progressive path, starting with commercial activities - farmer’s market and space for events - and ends with the Museum and the Memorial.

The whole project is based on three intervention strategies:

  • the reuse of existing structures of low historical value, which are used as open air courtyards or spaces closed by simple metal roofing, which are inserted into existing volumes

  • the construction of new buildings, characterized by a material and constructional uniformity that makes them clearly identifiable as new architectures while respecting the context and that are inserted in the existing terrain along the project routes and axes

  • the reuse of the most valuable historical structures, which are restored and used by establishing functions that can capitalize on the original features of the building. On these buildings the interventions aimed at a restoration and maintenance to enhance the original features. The extensions and grafts of new construction are made with few materials (cement, corten and granite) in order to make them legible while maintaining uniformity of image.