Ready Mades, Archpoints
The competition area is the archaeological park of the major paleolithic, Maltese temples. New structures include a 6000 sm visitor’s center, a 500 sm orientation center, as well as protective shelters for the ruined temples and design for all paths.
The design approach is the minimal intervention to the natural landscape of the park. The park is characterized by an extremely impressive and attractive natural landscape with a view to the Mediterranean Sea. The design intervention is minimal, so not to be competitive with the natural set, the view ports and the two sole temples.
All the paths that guide the visitor to walk around the park are placed on the trace of the already existing tracks and footpaths. Two main routes are created. The first route, the archaeological, is a direct, tough pathway that connects the two temples, the buildings and the entrance and exit of the park. The second route, the ecological, is a smooth pathway. It interconnects a more extensive area of the park and passes through or becomes a boundary between different ecological areas, such as the rocky seashore and the area of the monuments. This route connects the misqa tanks with the watchtower and the congreve memorial. On top the use of natural materials (such as limestone and wood) along the paths, give a feeling of
“belonging”.
The only existing human intervention to the landscape of the park is the quarries. So the building of the visitor’s center (the biggest build volume proposed for the park) is “hidden”, placed in the hollowness of the quarry. The orientation point a relatively small scale building half buried in the landscape built by local materials.