POZZUOLI WATERFRONT MASTERPLAN

Location: Pozzuoli, Italy
Year: 2009

The Pozzuoli waterfront site offers a unique and varied condition, which must influence any master plan. The unique qualities are in its history, its topography, and in its land formation.  These unique factors include: 1. unusual geological centers of activity 2. geological fault lines 3. historically modified coastline 4. topographic changes in land formation and elevation 5. historic artifacts and ruins.

Eisenman Architects has a history of taking the research and analysis of such specific site conditions as starting points for the design and generation of a master plan. But rarely have such a set of unique circumstances presented themselves for architectural intervention. Rather than limiting possible development options, these site characteristics throw open a range of alternatives that previously would not have been considered. Instead of producing a solution that could have been proposed for any site anywhere; these studies and preliminary investigations rule out such generic solutions. These have little to recommend them in the face of the historical, geological, and topographical evidence. We therefore hope that the sensitivity shown towards unique environmental and ecological conditions will lead us to an important master plan.