The proposal will be an addition to a listed building of industrial legacy, expressing principles of the exemplary building type of the Modern movement, the factory. The surrounding space is an archaeological site in which ancient remains have been found. There are also traces of an ancient road which leads to river Eurotas, where findings of an ancient bridge exist. Both the existing building and its expansion compose an �island� in an �archaeological sea� which surrounds them. The main available space for the new building is where the storage of the factory was situated, wherein archaeological findings of the upper layers have been either removed or destroyed.
We conceive the New Archaeological Museum of Sparta as an open museum of place. It aims to express and enhance the relationship between the antiquities in situ, the listed factory building and the new building complex. This is done respecting the natural and built environment through a composition which combines the following elements:
-The connection of the new building with a network of paths which will connect the existing archaeological spaces and will bring the visitors into contact with the contemporary city of Sparta and its landscape
-The design of an archaeological park with the enlargement and unification of archaeological site, providing open public walking areas within it.
-The integration of the new building into the old one through functional movement, a characteristic of industrial spaces.
-The intrusion of the archaeological space into the building by creating outdoor exhibition spaces and shaded social areas underneath the elevated volume of the main exhibition.
-The views of the exhibition through the atrium, even in hours when the museum is not open.
-The capability of simultaneous perception of the main exhibition areas, the ongoing archaeological excavation and the Laconic landscape.
-The potential for flexible layout of the exhibition area.
The architectual concept is the restoration of the visual and semantic continuity of the archaeological site under an elevated exhibition volume space with an atrium.
Collaborator: T. Tozaj