From the darkness of the underground to the heavenly light. A project for the Acropolis of Athens

The essay intends to address the theme of interdisciplinarity and the “intersection” of knowledge by examining a competition and research experience involving the Acropolis of Athens. The unequivocal contribution that the Greek experience makes to the world of architectural forms can be described in the balanced link that holds together the propensity for “convexity” – manifested by the properly architectural dimension found in the “world above” and here restored by the sculptural modelling of volumes in space – with the most ancient forms of the earth – the “world below” – that is, the “concave” dimension excavated and carved in solid matter, which is proposed as nourishment for architecture that in turn holds the aspirations of human life. But when an architecture loses its function, its form and even its material, when stasis crystallises what remains by regressing architecture into archaeology, how can man rediscover in that inert matter the human reasons and values still intimately belonging to our time? The Call of the Piranesi Prix de Rome e d’Athènes, organised by the Accademia Adrianea di Architettura e Archeologia onlus in 2022, is taken as an opportunity to reflect on possible ways to put these ancient relationships back into tension, to hold archaeology and nature together again through the addition of a new formal configuration that aspires to celebrate, in the past as now, the myth and beauty of this extraordinary place.