Modular, adaptable shelters for environmentally sensible archaeological sites

The Valle dei Templi Park, located in the Italian island of Sicily, extends over a surface of 1,300 hectares and preserves an extraordinary monumental heritage and landscape, dating back to Greek times and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997. Though visited by millions of tourists, the archaeological sites are not appropriately equipped for tourist use: this is why the Park Agency is promoting actions to improve facilities that are appropriate for today’s visitors and cultural standards. The “Architecture X Archaeology” workshop, that took place in 2013, explored the design and construction of lightweight, temporary structures to shelter archaeological sites and excavations otherwise exposed to the weather. The workshop was promoted by the Valle dei Templi Park Agency and was supported by the JSB programme, where Toyo Ito is one of the jury members. The interdisciplinary design of different types of shelters was based on locally available materials, but mixed the construction cultures of Italy and Japan through the participating universities. A Building and Information Modelling (BIM) process was adopted to control parameters related to the temporality of the shelters, their maintenance and their adaptability to the different local landscapes. The teams of Politecnico di Milano and the University of Tokyo developed two distinct solutions for specific applications. The “AkragaShelter” was designed to protect archaeological remains and, based on a mix of local stones, wood and plastic, is not intended to move, but can be dismantled in the future. The “Molecular Shelter” was instead designed around a single timber section to shelter temporary excavation sites, moving with the archaeologists in time; four persons are enough to displace the structure without dismantling it. The shelters were then constructed on site and they now represent the first step of a plan to introduce in the Valle dei Templi Park architectural elements that are at the same time contemporary and respectful of the sensitive heritage and landscape. The purpose is to prove that contemporary architecture, structure and archaeology can coexist harmoniously.