The Historical Archives of Ragusa

Ragusa Ibla, Sicily

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Alexander Mills 

A massive building sits desolate, surrounded by a landscape littered with ruins, and overgrown plant life. This was my chosen project setting in the unassuming town of Ragusa, Sicily. It was soon discovered, through the translation of various Italian documents, the in depth history of what was originally a church and convent. Most recently, after the almost complete rebuilding of the structure after a devastating earthquake, the building was set for its new life as the Historical Museum of Ragusa. The building however, remains vacant.

The aim of the project was to design a set of historical archives, complementary to the adjacent museum. The notion of the passing of time was taken as a poetic or thematic device. The path of the sun across the site was taken as a solid object, embossing passageways through the Sicilian context, connecting the museum with the landscape. The archives were designed as small compartmentalised blocks, scattered across the site between the recently created passageways.