Salvatore Viscuso, Alessandra Zanelli and Marta Barozzi 2018

“Textiles and Archaeological Sites: Towards a Methodology for Designing Lightweight Protective Structures,”
in S. Di Salvo, (ed.), Adaptive Materials Research for Architecture, (Advanced Materials Research 1149), Zurich: Scientific.Net, 2018, pp. 109-118.
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The paper discusses about the development of the best-fitting shelters used to cover (temporally or for long-time) archaeological sites, taking in consideration three main goals: 1) the protection of the archaeological structures; 2) a support to the archaeologist during their field word; 3) a complete and well achievable fruition of the archaeological remains to the visitors.

The starting point for the development of such a technology is represented by a general statement “each monument or historical find has its own peculiarity, therefore needs a specific shelter solution designed for the particular area of employment” (p. 109). Therefore, the authors try to outline the best solution to design the best (as much as possible) archaeological covering, considering that three different kind of shelters can be envisaged (depending to a specific purpose): “architectural shelters, shelters with museological approach and service (or functional) shelters” (p. 110).

The second aforementioned type “represents the museological approach to archaeological areas, in which the shelter aims, in addition to preserve the finds, to represent the site for the visitors. The tourist tour is enhanced by the shelter design, its walkways and its configuration. A successful example of this concept is the intervention on the site of Tell Mozan/Urkesh in Syria. […] The director of the site, Giorgio Buccellati [the name is mispelled in the original; I report here the correction], has studied an uncharacteristic protective system to preserve the mud-bricks of the walls, and, at the same time, shaping the architectural spaces and volumes of the finds, in order to interpret and present the site for the outside visitor. With this goal, the walls were re-shaped whit textile structures, following the ideal of a three-dimension rendering on the computer. The system consists of a metal structure that closely follows the outline profile of the walls and of a fitting canvas cover, made by local tent maker. Thanks to the modularity of the system, the inspection of the walls is effortless; the fabric can be removed from any portion of the walls in any moment. Last but not least, the shelters are completely reversible and can be easily dismantle” (pp. 110-111).

Hopefully, such a type of archaeological covering could be used also on other sites, needing shelters with “a high level of adaptābility and structural lightness, both for allowing non-invasive foundations system and for limiting the environmental impact” (p. 111).