Design intentions
The project concept is a proposal to conserve one of the five ruins sites discovered under the fortress hill in the coastal city of Kelibia, Tunisia ; and to insert the protective intervention in the urban dynamic of a rising district . The architectural structure that surrounds the antique Villa traces offers a material protection to the site which has been for years subject to climate effects, inhabitants` indifference and urban progression. It constitute a solution to better discover the archeological legacy (essentially made of mosaics) and a platform to the development of social life ( public place, leisure, meetings...) in the residential neighborhood as well. The introduction of cultural, social and touristic functions would make the attached building easily accepted by the population and integrated to the urban tissue. actually, in a half way between a museum and a public place, this urban intervention in such location is thought as a reconciliation between two states of the architecture :the recent one, always in evolutions and spreading, and the architecture that has already made his time but is still a timeless witness of the human genius . the used materials such as steel and glass were chosen for their reversible characteristics so they are easy to manipulate (installation and dismantlement) besides they don`t affect the authenticity of the protected site and assure a visual continuation of the site with the environment. As it was previously mentioned, the project is fulfilling a double function.At first, It works as a cultural area in which people get in touch with the concept of archeological site and which free accessibility encourages the museal self control. Second, it participates to the dynamism of the urban area by providing social abilities and by working as a open place.