Observatory Houses | Roccascalegna, Italy

Proposal by: Adrian Alexandrescu, Radu Moisescu

Type: Hospitality and Leisure

Status: Idea

Year: 2017

Brief

Dazzled by the brightness of our metropolis, we often forget the extraordinary vision the vault of heaven can offer us. However, there are still places that are far from lights and cities where the beauty of the infinite appears in its entire splendour.

Surrounded by forests and crags, Roccascalegna is one of the places where this magic continues to occur and where the sky keeps on telling its eternal and beautiful story. It is a unique and far place that is both incredibly beautiful and clearly fragile.

For these reasons, the Italian Exhibition Group and the Italian government launched the Observatory Houses project aiming to find a new use for Roccascalegna taking advantage of the potential of a oneiric setting with remarkable skies. The project aims at creating in Italy the first and most suggestive observatory houses. They will be a sustainable and exclusive house model aimed to ensure the protection and improvement of such inestimable heritage.

The brief is to create a story composed by stars, silences and landscapes. This story will have to include architectural elements designed to create a place beyond compare. It will not be a place of mere observation or accommodation; it will be a place of spirituality and meditation. Observatory Houses wishes to promote an architectural intervention that aims at becoming a symbol destination for those who wish to move away from their everyday routine and live an archaic, almost mystic experience thanks to the most ancient and beautiful sight.

Location

Roccascalegna is suspended between earth and sky apparently floating on a huge rock that seems to rise despite the laws of gravity. The fortress seems surreal as if it was a metaphor of the atavistic tension that since prehistoric times has been inclining the human being towards the sky. There are no words to describe the fascination of the fortress. It is an enchanted yet real place. Its history encompasses eras, ups and downs of history, people and events. It is a fabulous building in a harsh and untamable land composed of sharp rocks and wild nature.

Nowadays, this place is highly fascinating as it surely was hundreds of years ago when the Lombards chose it to build one of the most suggestive castles of Southern Europe. It is a place that tells a story of wars, mysteries and power. Overlooking the peaks of the Majella, Roccascalegna is a unique and beautiful place, an incomparable setting for internationally renowned projects. To ensure a contextualised design good to be translated into fully workable solutions hereby follows a list of primary constraints and features to take into account for the design.

*For more on the history of Castel Roccascalegna, please see the brief document attached.*

Concept

The idea of the building was simple. We wanted to use the site location and character of the castle as a way of defining the building. By adopting the castle typology of a secure perimeter with an open, private internal courtyard, the structure connects the past and future through its shape and interpretation of space.

Because we decided to locate the observatory in the centre of a national conservation site we could not carve the site to suit the building. Therefore we carved the building to suit the site. The structure sits like a blanket on the terrain allowing the lower parts of the castle to open up views for the higher segments of the observatory houses. Those views extend northwards and southwards from the accommodation area of the building while the internal courtyard overlooks the magnificence of Majella.

As the brief asked us to think about meditation and relaxation we decided to take the long walk from the foot of the hill and transform it into a procession which defines the building. The structure opens up to visitors at every step of the way. The journey to the observatory houses does not finish at the entrance. The architecture continues taking visitors through corridors and steps, similar to the labyrinth of the old castle.

Elements of the typology and architectural definition of the castle are preserved and made central features of the design. In addition to those, the program of the building defines the space. By lifting the height of the ground in the internal courtyard, we decided to complete the journey through an area of observation and relaxation.

The building is a constant transition between the inside and outside. Along with the movement within the building from dark spaces to light, ample rooms, we wanted to creates a multisensorial experience which is not limited by walls but opens to a higher sense of spirituality.

The entrance tower is a monument to the old, populated by the uses of the new. The shape and perforations are in keeping with the preserved medieval tower of the castle. However, the materiality follows the new direction, and by locating the main program at the top, it establishes itself as the driver for the future.

Presentation

We saw this project as an adventure, meant to connect the entire region's castles into a singular journey for those passionate about architecture and history. Therefore we decided to take some inspirations from Tripadvisor and present the project in the form of an online forum where people share their experiences. Quite clearly, Roccascalegna got highest ratings on all accounts.

*More information will be provided shortly in the Warehouse section of this site.*