fromdesignboom | architecture & design magazine
1 day agoleopold banchini shifts focus from tombs to dwelling through speculative shelter in italy
In the valley of Pantalica, Italy, where more than 4,000 rock-cut tombs line the cliffs above the Anapo River, architect Leopold Banchini introduces Asympta, a temporary micro-architecture that shifts attention away from the necropolis and toward the unknown architecture of the living. Installed in Ortigia in 2025 and traveling to Pantalica in 2026 for the COSMO festival, the structure reflects on the prehistoric civilization embedded within the Syracusa-Pantalica UNESCO World Heritage landscape, proposing a speculative shelter rooted in place rather than in archaeological reconstruction.