. architectural concept for the rehabilitation of Fort Campbell
The unique setting and typology of Fort Campbell were identified as one of the most important values to safeguard in the process of rehabilitation. This, combined with the prospective function of a museum led to the idea of the landscape, in its wider sense of the word including the built landscape, to become the museum. The geographical landscape is seen as an art gallery with the structures in the landscape being like objects in this open art space. This idea also captures the essence of what the Fort Campbell site historically was, a complex of structures that worked together with the landscape itself to serve as military defence.
Therefore it was decided to zone the site into areas as a master plan. The main site identified as the open air museum in surrounded by the outer walls with the entrance on foot as originally was and the B.O.P building being the visitors centre. Making it the locus of the site as also was its function as a WW2 Fort being the Battery of Operations. The adjacent buildings have been earmarked to house other related services such as public convenience and also a bookshop or cafe. The rest of the structures will be consolidated as best as possible but no partial or full reconstruction would be allowed in order to preserve the ruins as an artefact in themselves.
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| 3. Main Entrance |
For the intervention in the B.O.P, the overarching concept of the master plan remains in that the building will be preserved as a ruin, fully acknowledging its layers of history and the physical change that these brought to the structure. In treating history as embedded in both the remains and what was lost it seemed contradictory to intervene on the present fabric. The intervention was therefore conceived as the introduction of a new architectural fabric that would however converse with the historic fabric. This new fabric should, although being liberated from the constraints of the historic fabric, establish a conversation with it through its physical form.
The intervention has to derive its meaning from this spatial relationship with the historic fabric, in a sense, if it were removed from the context of the building it would be seen as abstract sculpture with no clear meaning. The present fabric and historical sources should inform the physicality of the intervention in doing so creating a suggestion of what once was within the freedom of a contemporary language. This idea establishes also a methodology of intervention that can be used for other structures in the complex. The fabric can then serve more than just the function of partitions in the space but can be used as panels where information can be placed and also create exhibition tables for use in the visitors centre.
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| c. Exhibit Table |
