A local friend and architect, Romano Adolini, has a passion for all types of caves. In his design process his love of cave-like homes shines through. Weekends he often takes long hikes along our region's rivers. For millenia, these rivers carved pathways between steep tufa cliffs, and a regular intervals along the cliffs there were caves. These caves served the ancient Faliscans as burial spaces, centuries of shepherds as shelters, and even as temporary wartime homes for local families during WWII.
The caves of Northern Lazio are as much a part of the local landscape as cave-dwellings were in Matera where significant investment has fashioned a chic and popular hotel among the formerly-ruined dwellings there. This current speculative project grew out of his love for cave structures and out of his desire to see environments like this abandoned quarry find new life. Often such sites become garbage dumps and eyesores as they return to their wild state and are abandoned for new sources of stone to extract.
Here is Romano's own description of this fanciful architectural project:
Project: NEW CLIFFSIDE RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX
Place: ABANDONED STONE QUARRY in Civita Castellana
Year: 2013
Designer: architect Romano Adolini in collaboration with architect Chiara Ercolini
"A new residential complex, carved into the vertical face of an abandoned tufa stone quarry in Civita Castellana, near Viterbo, is located in a landscape characterized by steep natural gorges, where there are extensive remains of both religious and residential ancient cave structures and settlements.
A settlement for "cosmic era cavemen" as expressed by the author Ermanno Rea, whose purpose is to reinstate the cave as an archetypal dwelling that has cultural and anthropological significance in the relationship between man and nature.
This scheme is a modern reinterpretation of a manner of living and behaving which responds to the need to distance oneself from outside, a new dimension of hidden isolation, of seeking silence and meditation. It is also a new solution to the rehabilitation of quarry sites, currently abandoned and forgotten industrial by-products, located in wonderful landscapes and destined otherwise to become illegal dumping grounds.
It represents an intervention in the negative, of subtraction, the enormous south-facing tufa wall perforated with geometric openings that filter natural light into the large double-height spaces, that are characterized by niches and rooms carved into the rock.
A perimeter body of water reflects the rising walls that still bear the signs of cutting tools used to quarry, accentuating the sense of isolation and defense, equipped with wooden bridges that function as links to a system of stairways, inspired by Piranesi, a passageway of transition between exterior and interior."
The quarry walls in their current state - figures for scale (monumental!)
Current state
The new facade: wall pierced by windows with entry doors at ground level, accessed by footbridges over the reflecting pools in front of them. The reflecting pool is a modern take on the castle moat.
Facade view with section showing double-height spaces behind, and indications of service corridors.
Section of internal space.
Section of interior showing stairways that connect the interior spaces to the entrances, exits and other dwellings.
Here's Romano's site in English: http://www.romano-adolini.it/en/architecture/. He designs public and private buildings and also acts as a "designer for hire" for manufacturers of sanitary wares and stylish high-end bathroom accessories (faucets, flush mechanisms etc).