Architrend Architecture | Ampliamento Giardino Ibleo

The enlargement of the Ibleo Garden, a public park, is located in the historical centre of Ragusa Ibla (declared a World Heritage Site in 2003). In this area a complex of buildings was built in the 50’s to contain an electricity station, abandoned in the 80’s. The project is the completion of a single and unified project involving two adjacent areas: the area of pine forest and the area of the former electricity station.

The two projects are a complex where contemporary architecture holds a close dialogue with the reality, stimulating a system that retrieves a space lost by the construction of the plant. The large courtyard, also called “square of the sculptures”, is the most important core of the project and it is conceived as a space for meeting and exhibition of outdoor sculptures. An architectural linear system gravitates around the court and characterizes this; a building housing is located on the west side, leaning against the existing homes and housing the new toilets and a tourist information office.

In the north, a wall covered in limestone supports a long walkway made of steel and glass, framing three large openings on the archaeological excavations and on the S. Leonardo valley. The bar, a small building, concludes the architectural linear system. All the new accommodation consists of an rigorous architecture and spatially accomplished; the system of paths, both on land and suspanded, allows the total use of the space and the perception of new and always different views.

In this context, the Contemporary Architecture is not self-referential, but rather arises from the places, from the existing to be enhanced (the portico of St. Vincent church), from the potential to develop in relation with the urban fabric, from the perception of traditional materials mixed with the contemporary ones, following an idea of balance and sensitivity.

Location: Ragusa Ibla, Sicily

Design: Architrend Architecture | Gaetano Manganello & Carmelo Tumino
Project: 2002-2004
Completed: 2007
Materials: Stone, Steel, Glass
Area sqm: 1.890
Photo: Umberto Agnello

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