2020 Call for ideas, Craco

Craco Ricerche is a small research and development company that was established in 1999 aiming to protect and enhance Craco’s historical city center. Together with YAC they set out a brief that outlined a few types of structures - to provide various framed experiences in the current context of Craco.

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From the brief description:
...Perched on stone pinnacles and clay ridges, Craco is the archetype of the ghost town.
It is a city burned up by the sun and severe winters. It is an assemblage of houses with unsteady bricks clinging to each other.
… It is a sculpture of houses with torn-off roofs, interrupted vaults and ruined bell towers.
It is a place that does not belong to the present. This space is trapped among the depths of the past. Here, time and abandonment made one of their most indescribable miracles.
Ruin;
the collapse of Craco is the outcome of a succession of distant events occurred in different ages. Despite this, history somehow wove them together in a progressive and irreparable ruin. Craco’s destiny lay illegible and imminent until it encountered its irreversible apex. The ancient Norman fortress was built in 1040 A.D. Such stronghold rests on a solid mineral conglomerate surrounded by majestic clay masses spreading out in the surrounding countryside. This is a generous land that has been favoring the populations cultivating it with abundant cultivations for centuries. However, such land hardly supports those people who aim to construct buildings there. Craco grew around its towers and imposed an increasingly signicant weight on the underlying clays. By doing so, it created a delicate and mysterious equilibrium point. Some hydraulic works were carried out in the thirties in order to provide the houses of the hamlet with running water. With their normal dispersions, they drained clay. They made it softer and significantly affected its ability to support the weight of a city that had remarkably grown over decades.
Program:
Shelters (8); they will be facilities to promote a dynamic tourist offer for trekkers and hiking enthusiasts.
Suites (3); participants will have to include suites in the area. They can either be perched on the stone or set in ruins. These apartments will have to meet the needs of all the visitors. They must accommodate from 2 to 4 people and offer a luxurious and refined experience.
Service center (1); this will be a public space providing ancillary services as information point, restaurant, library and exhibition space. Such facility will have to complete the experience of the different groups of users.