Designed for YAC Lighthouse Sea Hotel competition, the goal of the project is to put in communication the existing abandoned lighthouse and the inaccessible sea, situated on the sharp and jagged cliff of “Murro di Porco”, a few kilometers from the historic center of Syracuse, through its transformation into tourism facilities.
Submerged naturally into the coastal hill, this hotel, inspired by the rotating and expanded light of the existing lighthouse, overlooks the surrounding landscape in each zone: “The Circle Light”. The configured spaces, with the total area of 3000 smq, offer the environmental view with different functions: 6 suit rooms, 3 apartments, a bar-restaurant, a swimming pool and a central lobby which leads from the existing lighthouse through a unique elevated route. The project maintains the authenticity of the existing structures -the lighthouse and the small neighboring buildings will be used a museum- through a conservative intervention of restoration without affecting the landscape of the hotel. This construction is built in a sustainable way; it is composed of two overlapping curved planes, resting on the cliff and overlooking the sea, made from prefabricated blocks of concrete and assembled on site. The glass of the frontage reflects the landscape during the day. By night, all we can see is a curved single light.The chosen material: the concrete, the same type used for the construction of the breakwater in the naval field, in addition to its exceptional resistance to severe weather conditions, allows the building to fuse into the natural environment, mingling with the color of the rocks and taking advantage of the slope of the cliff to fit into the underground manner. Therefor, this hotel is most likely hidden. The new building and the path are built on the existing ground via a flexible metal mesh foundation system that adapts to the height discrepancies and irregularities of the rocky terrain.

Location: Sicily, Murro di Porco, Italy
Date: January, 2016
Intervention: Redesign