Leopold Banchini Architects' proposal for "Asympta" explores how architecture and cosmology emerge in harmony with the topography and resources of the landscape. To achieve this, they employ materials deeply connected to the land: volcanic stone from Mount Etna, local fire-sealed wood, Pece limestone, bronze, and sheep's wool felt.
The structure opens to its surroundings, evoking proximity and reciprocity, while also offering a shaded space for gathering. Its double asymptotic form recalls both the silhouette of the volcano and the geometry of a nearby latomia (an old quarry).
"Asympta" by Leopold Banchini. Photograph by Simone Bossi.
Project description by Leopold Banchini Architects
Little is known about the people who lived and buried their dead along the Anapo river. Pantalica - a complex of over 4000 thumbs carved in the rocks a millennium BC - doesn’t tell us much about the way the living found shelter. Since very few traces of commoners’ architecture has been found, we can only imagine that the valley’s inhabitants used light construction technics and local organic materials to build their homes.
Part of the Syracusa-Pantalica UNESCO world heritage site listing, Asympta is a speculative micro architecture reflecting on the mostly unknown architectural landscape of the prehistoric civilisation rather than on its known necropolis. It explores how architectures and cosmologies might emerge from a specific landscape, attuned to its topography and resources. The temporary installation, echoing the provisional qualities of early domestic architecture, generates diverse and fictional narratives based on vernacular as much as on contemporary construction methods, purposefully distancing itself from archaeological and scientific research or from strict timelines.
Using lava stone from the nearby Etna volcano, local wood sealed by fire, Pietra Pece limestone, bronze and sheep wool felt, the structure offers a shaded space for reunion and reflection. The double asymptotic shape echoes both the cone of the volcano dominating the landscape of eastern Sicily and the excavation shape of the nearby latomie where stone was extracted since ancient times. Purposefully questioning the romanticised myth of Laugier’s Primitive Hut, the open structure speaks of proximity, adaptability and reciprocity towards this rich landscape.
