Massullo 2.0 - Intensive Workshop
For 2017’s intensive design Workshop "Massullo 2.0" - hosted by Arch. Prof. Cherubino Gambardella - we as students have been asked for our contribution. During two weeks we worked on the task with considerations, ideas and then projects about the so-called “Cape Massullo" in Capri which sets the background for the famous Villa Malaparte. It is one of the most iconic and emblematic piece of architecture of the twentieth century, it represents the relationship between artifice and nature: the elementary boxed geometry, clear and smooth, stands firmly on the hard and uneven foreland. There is - therefore - a dualistic connection that enhances one character over the other, creating a game of opposites. The result shows how the architecture itself has enhanced the nature of the place. The villa is a material extension of the rock becoming an announced presence that enhances the value of landscape. Arch. Francesco Venezia described it as the "raising of the place". The purpose of the Workshop, instead of keeping/resuming the authorship on attempting another interpretation, is a risky and belligerent tampering. The main goal is to awaken the villa from its sleep and give it to the fate of stratification, therefore the proposed projects have manipulated a Capri-style villa, which becomes a "guinea-pig" for ablation, a deposit of unpublished figures, a pure utopia laboratory. But for architects utopia is never a true utopia, because it lacks the overcome of the construction, so it's vision. In this way we approached an exercise of visions, focusing on the strong reference of the surroundings and the impression of the place, which suggests a kind of "implicit project" based on the morphological constraints of the area. Although many considerations led us to understand that the project was the rock itself - no matter what kind of building would be placed on top of it - we designed a wellness centre, which would allow people from Capri or anywhere else to enjoy the beauty of the location. The center has a complete subterranean floor providing a perfect thermal insulation and a swimming pool on top, toward the horizon. Then we designed an inverted pyramid on top of the rock that is a large storage for rainwater which is collected and treated and a refreshment bar with viewpoints of the sea at the same time.
Online publication at: https://ita.calameo.com/books/0039912860389a8407867
