floating aporia
torre rinalda
lecce, italy
Aporia is a nuanced concept. Through its etymology, impregnable path, is developed the starting point for the intervention. The Central Mediterranean crossing has been the epicenter of a devastating humanitarian crisis. The Adriatic shore represents the last leg of the arduous journey for migrants from the Eastern Mediterranean, predominantly Syrian, who travel through Turkey and Greece before reaching Italy. Therefore, the typology of the fortress tower, related to the defense of the land against the foreigner, is paradoxically resignified into a welcome center for those on a journey towards dignity.
Floating aporia tends to expand the conception of heritage, relating the object to a contextual scale. Reestablishing the volume with thick walls made out of air, the project estabilhes a perimeter of care. The bubble structure expands into the remaining spaces, establishing a continuity among them and covers the internal space recreating its volumetry. A door extrusion leading out onto the sand greets the visitors to the ground floor that features a gathering assembly room with staggered seating arrangements and provides access to the upper level.
The inflatable walls on the upper floor serves as a protected path to the big mattress open air. From its prefabricated construction methods to the program proposed, the project aims to establish a network of subversion along the coast. After a long and violent journey, resting is here placed as political gesture: the big mattress upper floor is the final point of the proposition.
Connecting the towers becomes a matter of purpose: establish a site specific system capable of becoming territorial. Through the spatialization of the fortress in its time, the intervention is displayed as an architectural epitome that relates to the territorial condition of a fortress, questioning borders and its project potential.
Authors: Gabriel Weber and Rafael Manhães
Images: Eduardo Queiroz (@boxmedia.be)
