A HORIZONTAL LIGHTHOUSE

2016
Competition
Site: Syracuse, Italy
Program: Resort Hotel

 

This project for a resort hotel in the coast of Sicily is conceived as a horizontal lighthouse.
It takes inspiration from the prismatic exterior and interior effect produced by the glass lens of the existing abandoned lighthouse on site (Fresnel lens).

The main hotel component is envisioned as a horizontal counterpart to the existing vertical lighthouse, a conversation rather than a one-way forceful addition. The rooms are a series of small-scale faceted volumes of undulating channel glass. When lit from within, they reflect and emit a warm glow to the surrounding landscape and transform interior views into painterly blurred and private vistas. Their pointed roof-lines channel light into the interior spaces and their textured glass corrugated walls reflecting it to the beyond.

Thirty six rooms are symmetrically aligned along the water at each side of the lighthouse to maximize sun exposure and desired ocean views. This orthogonal arrangement results in a long, yet porous, inhabited wall that mediated between a rocky and spare seaside on one side, and a lush landscape design on the other.

Beyond this “fresnel wall”, a restaurant and a spa buildings are surrounded by varying scales of gardens that accommodate different activities.

*click and wait to load!