In order to recover a landscape and a system of pre-industrial water mills in Mulini valley AMALFI & SCALA, Italy, currently in danger of collapse beyond repair, Waterpower has devised a renewable strategy which should be able to convert this hard-to-repair architecture into an eco-sustainable environment.
From the 13th century the valley featured paper mills, iron mills and later hydro-electric power stations, which exploited water power through ingenious systems of channels, tanks, level drops, funnels and water wheels to produce energy to make things. From the port of Amalfi the network of mills rises 3km inland and 350m in height. The structure now is counting its last breadths. However, the Waterpower project if completed should surely help the structures gain their lost glory and that too in style.
The project hits three main aspects – Restoration, Water Power and Renewable Energy. The resulting proposals look at different uses of the old mills, including purposes as diverse as a youth hostel. This hostel will also have water from the Canneto River flowing through a part of the building. Other features to be incorporated are a spa, a kind of outdoor historical walkway, a ‘Waterfall Home’ deeply embedded into bedrock, and a hydraulics museum.
The project will surely be able to give the Mulini valley what it really deserves. For more images of the proposals please click on the link below.
Via: BLDG Blog
