TEMPIETTO R. Cork Oak Nursery for the Ramarro Association Caltagirone, Sicily, (under construction).

Near Caltagirone in Sicily, there is a forest of cork oaks. Historically, this was a buffer zone between various urbanised areas and the forest was maintained as a collective resource that allowed the less well-off to roam.

Today, the forest is a protected natural area often subject to malicious and criminal encroachment. Bosco Colto (@boscocolto) is an initiative that transforms the forest into a place of permanent research, a campus to experiment with new living arrangements for “men, plants and animals”.

As part of these architectural experiments, I was invited to reflect with the students on the possibility of building a nursery (in progress) to replicate oak trees undertaken by the Ramarro association that was destroyed in a fire in past years.

We, therefore, built a reticular wooden structure made entirely of wooden profiles with a cross-section of 24x48 millimetres. The project was a "didactic construction site" for 1:1 scale design.

The pavilion is designed as an open-air classroom to house the nursery, managed by the Ramarro association, protecting the oak seedlings from the harsh southern sun. The structure is conceived as an "architectural brace" that will act as a framework for the creepers that, in time, will replace it, favouring a perfect integration between nature and architecture.