A Room of Light and Sound. Piscina Mirabilis.

ARCHITECTURAL IDEA. The governing concept of the proposal is the creation of a fluid and continuous experience of space that at the same time preserves the sovereignty of the ruin of Piscina Mirabilis. The existing main space of the piscina is preserved with minimum intervention and is used as the exhibition gallery hall for the new Museum of Contemporary Art. Each visitor is greeted at the ground zero of the Piscina, where a small platform gives an almost bird-view perspective over the vastness of the space laying below. Once descended to the level of the water, the visitor is provided with a personal little boat with oars, and invited to embark on an unusual path through the space of the Piscina among a selection of art works, suspended in mid-air above the water surface.

As an opposition to a default approach of inserting new volumes within the existing ruin, the proposal consists in the addition of a single external volume. Water is incorporated as a vehicle of circulation between the works of art. The museum emphasizes a new way of looking at art, which creates a sense of independence and intimacy for the visitors.

ART IN SPACE. The museum of art takes advantage of the inherent properties of the ancient space of the cistern and proposes an intensified sensory experience of light and sound. The darkness of the vast underground space and the reverberation of every little sound off the water surface, is to create a magical atmosphere where art with non-exclusively visual components can be exhibited. The placement of the art in a space with a “fluid” floor also provides an unusual configuration where the art works have to be suspended and observed primarily from below, taking advantage of the endless reflections of the water surface.