SCHOOL OF THE SEA

La Maddalena is located in a protected natural parc, in a strategic position in the Mediterranean sea. Its identity heritage is linked with the ecosystem and the military presence. Now this small island is call to renew its economic and cultural resources. The proposal aims at a possible solution by re-reusing one of its best-known military buildings.

" Man is himself the field to cultivate, the good seed and the expert cultivator. (...) From this and by nothing else arises politics, the real one, daughter of a process of self-cultivation and of one's own field: the res publica. " Trad. from RACHELI GIN, Isole e insularità futura, La Maddalena, Paolo Sorba Editore,1996. In La Maddalena's emblematic case, the military presence and the consequent building heritage are an integral part of local identity and define much of the history, the culture and the mental and geographical landscapes. The Ex-Military Arsenal reflects, in its present neglected state contemporary infinite opportunities, an identity's liminality stage among a renewed ecological feeling, the development of the tourism and the downsizing of military role with which the whole Archipelago is facing today. The project proposal investigates the strategies that can assist in this declination of identity and model, both according to the limits that a territory so vital and fragile imposes, focusing on the design of two of the complex's buildings (the Sea Pavilion/ Ex Carbonaia and the House of the Sea, of the Arch. S. Boeri).First of all, the new element is a Sea School that integrates Sardinian universities courses with educational paths linking to the study and development of the territory and economic activities integrated to it. Secondly, several design strategies for free uses and appropriation of places propose the partial reuse of structures and a step by step construction of the site as well as foresee temporary marked areas to implement free tests, so that they can supply the future development directions in the right time and jointly decided. In conclusion, the comparison with such a unique and meaningfull place, leads to a reflection on the role of architectures and planning and on the limits to define absolute and unique solutions, respecting the need to adapt the project to a temporal reality system which has to be considered in its continuous evolution.