
Museo Villa Caviciana
Museum of Art, Lago di Bolsena/Italy
type/year:
images:
direct commission 2015-2018
Ben Dieckmann
Alexander Schmitz
vernacular architecture
About 150 kilometres north of Rome at the Lago di Bolsena, lies a country estate embedded in vineyards. The estate is to be extended by a private museum where the owners can exhibit their own and other artists' art.
The Etruscans, an ancient Mediterranean people, had a decisive influence on the cultural and scenic development of the region. The floor plan of the museum therefore follows the tradition of classical Etruscan and Roman buildings. Apart from two doors and two narrow light gaps leading to the inner courtyard, the building has no exterior windows. This minimum number of light openings serves on the one hand to make the building economical and secure and on the other to protect the exhibits from light and temperature.
Since the exhibition space required is larger than the permitted above-ground volume, it was built as a two-storey underground building. The continuous inner courtyard, which begins at level -1, does not give the visitor the feeling of being in a basement at any point. At the same time, the ring-shaped interior - in proportion to the size of the museum - creates a very generous exhibition area.
Unfortunately the project was stopped in 2018 after the death of the founder.












