Dan Bennett

Inscribing Uncertain Grounds: Tectonics and Technics of Rione Terra - Abstract

Puteoli, or Pozzuoli as it is now known, was once known as the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire. Today it is better known as the epicentre for studies into the effects of a rare seismological phenomenon called Bradyseism (bradús- slow, and seismós, movement). As the vast magma chamber below the Campi Flegrei naturally fills and empties, the groundwater above heats (and expands) or cools (and contracts), forcing the ground to raise and lower relative to mean sea level. This constant shifting of ground level leads to regular, and often catastrophic, earthquakes. At the centre of this erratic landscape, and in the centre of Pozzuoli, sits Rione Terra (District of the Ground). This raised tufo plateau, home to the ancient Greek settlement of Dicearkia and subsequently a significant Roman Port, is regularly at least partially closed to enable building (and re-building) works. Rione Terra’s historic importance and outlook over the Gulf of Pozzuoli made it a sought-after piece of real estate, but buildings were frequently condemned before being completed because of the fluid and fractious nature of the ground beneath. It is currently an open-air museum.

Inscribing Uncertain Grounds details a series of architectural intermediations that cooperate to form a diasporic seismic research campus for the University of Naples Federico II, bringing meaningful occupation to a part of the city-landscape seemingly given over to geological forces. By re-occupying existing buildings, as well as providing new facilities, Inscribing Uncertain Grounds speculates as to how architecture can be informed by and subsequently adapted to a landscape such as that of Pozzuoli. It positions ground as an active architectural agent rather than a malleable blank canvas into which an architectural project might be placed. Spaces for Geological Laboratories, a small Lecture Theatre and Talk Spaces as well as temporary accommodation for visiting researchers form a site for the study of Geo-Technics in which the intersection of cultural, technological, and social forces is explored, discussed, and advanced. The proposed architectures can be categorised into four key tectonic expressions: Splitting, Modularisation, Stapling, and Actuation. Each expression influences and is influenced by the technics of the architectural project (its specific position at the intersection of cultural, technological, and environmental concerns) and the ground of Rione Terra. Collectively, these projects hypothesise how architecture, within a series of broad tectonic strategies, might provide a more long-lasting—and yet more tentative—engagement with such a freely shifting landscape.