The brief requires the design for a research center on olive and vine cultivation, partly obtained from existing buildings and partly with newly built elements.
The submitted proposal is divided into thematic areas, coinciding with the three altimetric levels of the lot.
On the upper terrace the info-point, housed in a public building not involved by the competition.
On the bottom an old Scout house, renovated as a guesthouse.
In the center the new building containing the auditorium and the workshops.
Connecting the three terraces a long ramp provides the guests a slow visit path through the park: ideal sample of the Vulture countryside acting as botanical garden, educational orchard, and outdoor workshop.
The new building appears as the juxtaposition of two annular bodies lying on top of each other down the slope. A vertical weaving of spaced wooden planks envelops both volumes, merging them in an image of lightness and immateriality.
The lower ring gathers on its perimeter the teaching and research rooms, distributed by a covered corridor around a circular patio.
The upper ring, partially cantilevered, crowns the open-air theatre created from the slope above, The overlapping of the two rings generates a double-height auditorium, with an almond-shaped plan. The space, symmetrical on two axes, can be set up both longitudinally and transversally. In this second configuration, during the warm season, it is possible to expand its capacity by transferring the audience on the steps of the hemicycle and using the entire room as a covered stage.
