MUSEUM OF MEDITERRANEAN MILITARY HISTORY

LOCATION: Batteria di Capo d’Orso, Palau, Sardinia, Italy

PROGRAM: Museum, Restaurant, Library and Hotel

CLIENT(S): Confidential

SIZE: 35,000 SF

STATUS: Competition

PROJECT TEAM: GOAT (Architecture)

GOAT occasionally uses international competitions to experiment with new ideas, test out alternative methods of drawing and rendering, and to expose ourselves to foreign places and programs. The Museum of Mediterranean Military History project provided us with all of these opportunities.

The tension at the heart of any museum commemorating military conflict is between the desire to commemorate elegantly but exalt reservedly. War is tragic and wounds deeply across oceans and generations, and the frequently monumental architecture of museums can struggle to appropriately reflect this fact. The historic Batteria di Capo d’Orso is deeply embedded in its mountainous site, truly one with its surrounding geology. Its walls are buttressed by stone outcroppings and its interiors are largely windowless, offering only occasional glimpses of the natural beauty beyond. It was designed to be discrete and substantial.

The challenge of this project is to achieve similar emotional and architectural discretion and substance while accommodating a rather expansive and varied program with minimal disturbance to the site. GOAT’s proposal achieved this by mirroring the material character and weight of the batteria; by composing the project’s volumes simply and elegantly; and by making the entire site serve as a memorial worthy of the visceral weight it is burdened with.

GOAT team: Peter Spera III, Colin VanWingen