Speaker
Description
The Laboratory of Architecture and Territory, whose members are all architects and researchers from the Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering and Architecture (DICAAR) of the University of Cagliari, Italy, explore the potential of designing research infrastructures and their spatial components by considering territorial systems. in recovering the material and immaterial value of a mining landscape as peculiar as that of Sos Enattos, Lula (Sardinia) – candidate site to host the Einstein Telescope. Especially today, with knowledge intended as a crucial agent in orienting the ecological transition, ET represents a unique opportunity to rethink forms, figures and images associated with scientific progress. What is the role of architectural and urban design in reshaping the space of scientific infrastructures, its boundaries and the powerful connections with their hosting
territories?
The research activities are devoted to the accurate work of identification and possible enhancement of the multiple layers that characterize Sos Enattos as a peculiar landscape entity. In fact, mining sites are to all intents and purposes included in the notion of “landscape” that, in this case, is the result of a complex and stratified process of interventions on the soil converted into a productive and exploitable resource. In particular, the mining landscape of Sos Enattos is punctuated with architectural presences, isolated or in cluster form, coinciding with the surface infrastructure at the service of the underground mining activities. Such a territorial infrastructure represents a tremendous source of inspiration for developing new typological solutions and symbolic-expressive values.
Taking existing buildings as the testing ground of a broader strategy, preliminary design projects are currently under development.
Starting from an open and flexible program, where scientific research, dissemination and interaction with the general public coexist, these interventions are presented both as a “gateway” to the Einstein Telescope infrastructure and, most of all, as a pilot project for the territorial system identified with the future science park. Its design will be based on recurrent type of landscaping and architectural interventions, including technically sustainable solutions, able to connect life above the ground with the scientific universe underground.
