ANDREA TOMASINO

The Torri dell'Appia project has been developed as part of the Appia 2030 Residencies programme, a territorial valorisation process promoted by MediAree and curated by Bellissimo and Torinostratosferica, which aims to support the candidature of the historic route of the Appian Way in its Apulian section as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 
The final objective is the drafting of a series of design interventions to be placed along the route of the Appian Way, in the final stretch from Francavilla Fontana to Brindisi, passing through Oria, Latiano and Mesagne. Interventions that take on the character of landmarks, of objects placed in the territory capable of adding attractive and qualifying values and drawing a route that is currently hidden, traceable only through historical memories.
Starting from the suggestion of the ancient watchtowers that still dot the Apulian territory, the proposed landmark becomes the reference point that rises above a typically flat landscape, reinterpreting its identifying features: the colour of the olive trees, the potential of the wind, the materials of the land.
Arranged along the route and declining from time to time according to the function they are to perform, the towers fulfil the task of orientation devices, of garrison and security, of activity generators.
The project prototype is the watchtower, on which it is possible to climb and embrace the surrounding landscape with one's gaze. Arranged on several levels and with a wooden structure, it uses its architectural components to evoke the characteristic elements of olive trees: in the colours of the panels that move and produce sounds with the passage of the wind, as well as in the typical twisting of the trunk with the course of the bracing.