Due to the Nuclear waste crisis that Italy is currently facing after years of illegal and harmful dumping, we propose the site of Val d’Orcia, specifically Castiglione d'Orcia, for the ideal location of a new nuclear waste site. Alongside storage, our project consists of a housing development for the influx of workers that will migrate to this area for the new nuclear jobs. The storage facility itself will be an underground labyrinth of safe and secure places to both work and store nuclear waste. Above, the housing will have a more hospitable feel, allowing the separation of work and home but also limiting the commute time, psychologically helping the community as well. The influx of jobs will assist in economically boosting Castiglione d’Orcia, allowing for a long term development of the area, and provide a solution to the nuclear crisis.
Our preliminary study work revolved around the geological landscape and how the built environment stems from it. The first videos show how the built environment rises from the materiality of the earth below. The second shows the negotiation that the built and natural environment give and take. That led us to look into how nuclear waste was part of that negotiation and the Italian conflict with the waste that exists.
The housing consists of excavated spaces that slowly become regular and built out of the rock. The correlation between the rock and the processes of living is extremely important in implying spaces and creating opportunities for carving methods. The housing units are formed around four main cores to create clusters that organize the people living there to the occupations and tasks that they perform within the facility. These houses resemble cave or castle like homes and consist of more private spaces at the bottom to reflect the same process that happens within the nuclear facility. The orthogonal housing units spread further into the ground as the individual spaces become more private, just as the nuclear facility spreads wider into the ground as the barrels become more individually enclosed.
Our preliminary study work revolved around the geological landscape and how the built environment stems from it. The first videos show how the built environment rises from the materiality of the earth below. The second shows the negotiation that the built and natural environment give and take. That led us to look into how nuclear waste was part of that negotiation and the Italian conflict with the waste that exists.
