Perimetral building and Roman Temple of Diana environments | José María Sánchez García

The project is solved with a perimeter piece L-shaped, with its own syntax, sewing its edge with the city and creating a large square around the temple. The perimeter frame is positioned on the edge of the site, away as possible from the temple, to achieve the greatest possible area of ​​square. The building flies above the archaeological level, allowing a natural contact between the temple and the urban structure. The platform is at the same height as the basement of the temple. In the perimeter area, a concrete wall regulates the edge and creates services zones, supporting thee hanging boxes. A flexible buffering zone occupies the interstitial spaces between the L piece and the back parts of the existing buildings. The whole square will have an earth finishing, leaving the archaeological features that must be respected untouched. The piece in L is defined as an artificial stone, made of lime and aggregates characteristic of the place with the granite-like color of the podium of the Temple and always tending to a textured finish resembling the original stone. We don´t talk about concrete as such, but a warmer artificial stone made using materials found in the surroundings. The project retrieves the center of the city in Roman times, understanding the Roman public space and its original design, using contemporary language and a technology according to our time. The L-shaped piece comprises: Platform: It frees the archaeological level and has the same height as the podium and temple A route allows the visual relationship between the visitor and the temple. Walls: Close views of the back of the surrounding buildings. Defines the empty zone and adds value to the temple Platform and Walls: "L" shaped piece (resulting of the union of 1 + 2) Floating structure that generates the square limits. Interstitial spaces: Flexible areas that will host commercial and cultural uses New order among the city and the square. From a conceptual standpoint, the initial starting point was the definition of the project with its own syntax, the definition of the project not as a form but as a number of rules and guidelines that define how to act. This type of project has enabled the adaptation to the particular circumstances of an environment as complicated as Merida, without losing a unitary image in the intervention.