We enjoy the careful siting of the various characters in the ancient city. The relationship each has to the particular topography. baptistery, a theater, a basilica, public baths, a gymnasium, gates, castle walls, the set pieces of the Agora. In our wider work, themes and interests which recur relate to human comfort and delight, sustainability, collaboration, opportunity for connections to each other, to landscape and light. Views through, courtyards, pockets of landscape and light as a way of finding and connecting to a special sense of place.

The space between

The new visitor center is composed of a collection of new fragments or characters, held together under a continuous roof or canopy. The fragments will hold useful accomodation (kitchen, offices, wcs, storage, staff offices, while the spaces between frame views to significant figures in the wider landscape, allowing the more social and circulation spaces to combine in a fluid arrangement: cafe, education, community and exhibition. In locating an entrance to the north side of new building, deep sheltered outside space would be created, allowing gathering before entering. To the south, deep overhangs would provide useful shading and shelter from the sun and rain. As part of wider landscape, new nature flora and tree planting is proposed to the visitor parking for shading and a more enjoyable arrival experience. New fragments with a material and constructional continuity, extend in to the landscape, and so a new ticket office at the entrance of the ancient site would feel connected to the main building.

The spaces in the visitor centre, set on and into the hillside looking out over the Vivari Channel, are intended to be prelude to the experiences that are to be had in the ancient city. Just as each of the sites in the ancient city can be seen as characters, each with their own sets of place, form, and function, but share a material language and continuity, each of the new fragments, or solid blocks in the visitors centre has its own particular form and function. Establishing a relationship with the existing topography - nestling in, settling on, emerging from the land. The roof, a canopy delicately draped over the solid blocks of accommodation. A loose relationship between inside and out, allowing generous covered outdoor space between the more solid elements. The canopy would allow light to the interior from above where needed, we see the rooflights as having a resonance with the irregularly formed holes in a beautiful rock which has been gently eroded by rain over time.