Forte Col Badin, preparation of the MGGM - Museum of the Great War in the Mountains
Intervention: fitting-out, museum preparations and interpretation
Chiusaforte (UD), Italy, 2009 - 2012
Intended use: museum, cultural centre for exhibitions and conferences
Client: Municipality of Chiusaforte
Dimensions: covered area 1,253 sq m
Status: completed
The buildings housing the exhibition remained physically “frozen” at the point they had reached in 2008. The walls tell of the passage of the generations that accompanied the fort as it aged over the years, illustrated by graffiti with the dates and names of its artists, the words and drawings of soldiers who served at the fort, and the signatures of the many curious spectators who visited the site in its abandonment.
The buildings we designed to host visitors had been used by the garrison rather than for war, and have now been transformed into welcoming, comfortable spaces. This area in particular showcases our project, with the newly built areas marked by the colour red in such a way as to provide a clear distinction between the new architecture and the historic architecture.
Today Forte Col Badin is not just a museum, but a cultural centre that provides spaces available to visitors equipped with modern facilities including a guest house, bookshop, café, and conference room.
The interior has been designed with simple, geometric forms in order to avoid introducing new meaning to the historic rooms or alter the perception of the architectural space. Traditional material was used (larch), but treated in a modern way by bleaching it.
There is no distinction between furniture and displays with tables and stools also used as display panels and cases. The experience of visitors should be to feel the presence of a time when this was a ‘war machine’, and its evocative force.
The polished cement floors and tables with cementite finish, the galvanized iron window frames, outdoor systems with iron pipes and grey sheathed cables, slide unnoticed into history.
Light, never evenly diffused, causes light and shade giving a sculptural quality and depth to the spaces, while the pale colours of the stable LEDs allow an objective look at the objects.
The finds interact with the historic masonry behind them, in itself a rich source of further finds to be brought to the surface.
