MESSINIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH CENTER

The steep slope "buries" the building, which opens only on the eastern side. In order to cope with the insufficient lighting, we add light from the roof.
At a small distance from the southern side of house No. 10a, a new two-storied structure on the ground covers the auxiliary needs of the central building. In the upper floor of the same building and on the first floor of house No. 10a, we placed the unit housing the laboratories.
House No. 11 is used as a restaurant. Access is achieved directly from the pedestrian road. Its ground floor covers the lodging of permanent personnel. The auxiliary spaces of the restaurant were placed on the ground floor of neighboring house No. 10.
Houses No. 8, 8a, 9 and the upper floor of house No. 10 become guesthouses. In direct proximity with the latter, we added a new house also intended as a guesthouse designed for individuals with special needs. In contact with house No. 9, we added a new unit on ground level so that the number of residents reaches 19. The lodging of professors is served by house No. 7.
The library and the offices are found in two new independent buildings that follow the large axis parallel to the altitude. An interesting plateau is created between them.
In the old buildings, after an initial dismantling of light elements and plaster, the stonework is cleaned. Where the joining of the stonemasonries has deteriorated, it is demolished and reconstructed using the same old stones. Existing foundations are strengthened perimetrically with armed concrete, while the stonework is strengthened statically with concealed bonding material. All the interior spaces are redecorated. The wooden structural elements in the floors and roofs are replaced by complex woods. Where the floors are not of wood, they are covered with local stone plaques or ceramic tiles. The interior walls on the ground floors are constructed as single brick walls while the partitions on the upper floors are made of lighter materials. The roofs are laid with thin wooden surfaces. They are insulated for heat and moisture and covered with Byzantine tiles.
The construction of new buildings is made with supporting stonemasonry with a thickness of 50 cm in combination with armed concrete that is left "bare" in order to differentiate the new from the old buildings. Their openings have wooden frames that are of modern technology.

Our aim was to cover the various functions without resorting to synthetic extremities or neo-tradition-al banalities. Our intervention, in fact doubles the existing volume, and artfully increases the structural density of space. In spite of the latter, we believe that it produces an exemplary conversation between the existing constructed and the natural environment. As a result of this, the success of our resolution can be established.