Piscina Mirabilis museum
Spring 2020, Oslo, Norway
Collaborator: Yao Wang
Piscina Mirabilis
History Piscina Mirabilis is in the Municipality of Bacoli, close to Lake Miseno (the ancient Misenum), over a hill which faces the Bay of Naples. It was realized during the Augustan Age. During the war with Pompeius, in fact, the son of Caesar ordered the construction of a harbour complex in the west side of Puteoli (Pozzuoli), named Portus Julius, which became the headquarter of the western Mediterranean war fleet. In order to feed with water the militar base, Augustus decided to build an aqueduct from the Serino mountain to the Lake Miseno, which had, as terminal point of the path, a reservoir, today well known as Piscina Mirabilis.
Our proposal was trying to reuse this space as a Contemporary Art Museum. The requirements for the new museum pose a challenging situation: It must accommodate spaces for a certain range of functions for the modern use inside the cistern space. The buildings also act as a collective museum with exhibits on the history of the Roman archaeological site.
Floating Bridge
Aiming at a minimal interior intervention, the only architectural elements are the suspended bridge and floating ‘boxes’. With the respect of the terrain of the old building, the new installation is retreated to become the background of the old structure so as not to disturb the continuity of the foundation and also to completely separate the present from the past. People enter the building through a suspended bridge and walk down a set of stairs that seem not to touch the ground at any point. Railings are only provided around the ruins to enable visits in different level. Through the passageway suspended from the roof, there are three exhibition halls arranged along the way. A café is placed on the central axis between two exhibition halls at the lowest height in the cisterns. A bookstore and souvenir is placed at the end of the exhibition path. The auditorium, office and other spaces are arranged close to the entrance. Sculpture, artistic projects and some other artworks together with the light installation are displayed between every fore columns in the exhibition area.
a-a Section
