This project is located in Mulazzo, Italy, and aims to reactivate a long-abandoned historical ruin by transforming it into a visitor center themed around local wine culture. The original building, narrow and severely damaged, is preserved and reinterpreted through a lightweight architectural intervention. Key additions include a suspended steel walkway that hovers beside the ancient walls and a rooftop café enclosed by a sloped glass façade, offering a delicate balance between heritage and contemporary use.
The design responds to multiple site challenges—limited space, structural decay, and fragmented local wine-related heritage—by introducing a spatial sequence that leads visitors through immersive exhibitions, wine tasting spaces, and outdoor viewing platforms. This strategy unifies scattered winemaking memories in the town and creates new spatial rhythms through contrasting materials, including heavy stone and transparent steel/glass. Each space encourages physical and visual dialogue between the old and the new.
The project proposes a sensitive and minimal approach to heritage preservation, emphasizing visibility, adaptability, and the layered experience of time. Through this adaptive reuse, the visitor center becomes a living archive of Mulazzo’s cultural identity and a new civic node for locals and tourists alike.
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