The Ancient Lookout

The Ancient Lookout is an historic, military building from the beginning of the last century and located on a promontory of the Cilento coast. The Lookout was used in its original function until the end of the Second World War. The subsequent abandonment, failing the military needs for which it was built, has gradually brought the building to a high degree of deterioration over the decades.

The restoration was carried out with the aim of restoring the lookout to its original appearance. The original volumes and openings have remained unaltered; from the beginning and throughout the construction process, there has been scrupulous attention to maintaining the original character unchanged without adding or subtracting, even in the new residential function of the building.

The process management intervention on behalf of the client was conducted, in collaboration with the designer and construction manager, on two fronts: on the one hand, a careful evaluation of every detail in order to recover the flavor of the past and the harmony of the building, also with the surrounding landscape, on the other, no renunciation of the adaptation to today’s building and plant standards also in terms of energy containment.

The works were carried out with finishes of the local building tradition and the original period of construction such as the external lime plaster, wooden window frames, stone sills and wrought iron hardware; Details have been restored such as the external wash house or the original power grid arrive point with the ceramic insulator. For technological systems such as the external lighting system that has hidden light sources, we proceeded to conceal or minimize their visual impact.