New mining park museum
Progetto accademico
Collaboration
Year
Place
Customer/Organiser
This project focuses on the creation of a tourist landmark for the Ollomont mining complex. The site is surrounded by the Alps and forests that offer an interesting view of the mountains. The easy access allows tourists arriving in the valley to have a place where they can learn about the nature and history of this region.
The proposed building houses an information centre, a room for projections or training activities and a mining museum that preserves old tools and minerals; the exhibition area also extends the collection into the outdoor courtyard.
The building stretches above the watercourse that runs through the valley, and when touching the opposite bank it is right opposite the access to the nearby mine, where a hypothetical visitor's route continues. The building measures 38 x 16 metres and is covered by a double-sloping copper roof that ends on the façade without protrusions. The quadrangular volume of the conference room emerges from the volume and defines the internal spaces and functions. While the reception and conference room are large and transparent, the museum narrows on the sides and roof, indicating the old mine entrance as an imaginary line, gradually reducing the museum section from 12 metres to 4.
To cover even greater widths, a structural system of wooden lamellar beams has been used, forming a repetitive succession of portals that mark out the building's spaces, immersing the visitor inside an underground tunnel, the path culminating near the exit where the increasingly darkened room is illuminated by the glass door. Exiting outside, the route continues across the river towards the mine proper.
On the south side is a porch that connects the interior rooms with the outside courtyard and covers the larger windows to the south from the summer sunlight. In addition to the main functions for exhibition purposes, on the east side is the two-storey caretaker's house.
