Program: Hotel
Cover Area: 3000M2
Location: Siracusa, Italy
Period: 2016
Memories from Sicily
The most impressive memory of a Sicilian trip years ago was the moment to pick up some stones from an unknown beach, as many tourists will do. These objects are just ordinary rocks, can be found everywhere on the coast of southern Italy. Yet the memory recalled from the rocks precisely captures the auras of the territory.
There are few places like Sicily with the landscapes which are so fresh and direct. It is fair to say that the whole territory is an assemblage of common things. By the power of nature, when all the elements come together, it becomes piece of art.
Lighthouse can be seen as a crystallized memory of the territory. From the day it erects, it seemed gradually transformed from architecture to rock, in the end merged with its surroundings. With only the ocean and ships, it is a lonely structure. The lighthouse Murro di Porco, is typical of this kind: It Is located miles from Syracuse on a cliff facing Mediterranean. It is almost abandoned due to its function. The no man's land is a place of unknown, or a place to be forgotten.
Collection of differences
The site is a tabula rasa in terms of human habitation. But with all the landscape elements such as lighthouse, cliff, and the horizon of sea layered, complexities are produced. The task of design, then, becomes to define roles and establish relations between elements found on site. More like a kid collects rocks, and then organizes in an innocent way.
The result of design is a 3-dimensionalcollage. The lighthouse is carefully restored, attached by a series of blocks, whose positions are actually defined by the excavations. This compound is occupied by public areas. Hotel rooms are arranged elongating the coast. Each unit is therefore embraced with magnificent views facing the sea. The curve following the contours translates the topography of Sicilian coast, floating like clouds. The spaces in between public and private are enclosed. These courtyards are originally a tiled cliff. They are left open without touch. The transformation: the growth of plants and erosion of rocks, are subject to the power of nature through time.
Beautiful Life
The contemporary hotel has in long term been defined as operating machines, with clear set up of daily routines. The design questions this role by generates diversity rather than offering identical quality of spaces.
The design is treated not as a single object but a complete urban environment. The sea framed by window, walks in a small alley, sitting in a colonnade, taking a nap in garden … these fragments of lives in typical Sicilian cities--- are set with a sense familiar and sensitive. But when walk through one are aware of the changing of scenarios. The montage aims to create unexpected qualities with an experience escape from reality.
If you zoom out, though, to take some steps back to a place where one can see how it is situated in its surroundings. The verticality of lighthouse is the hint to expose its profile as landmark. It is low, porous structure, scale unknown, rooted in the ground. Like some ordinary rocks left on sea shore, you may put in your pocket.
