MUSEALIZATION OF THE MINING SITE

The area subject to redevelopment and museum valorization is located within the “Miners’ Village” of Cogne. The project involved the development of a new redistribution of the functions of the buildings and routes of the new Museum so as to be accessible to all. 

The program for the Museum of the Regional Mining Park of Cogne in its general and overall vision envisages being able to arrive with the museum and tourist routes up to the Cogne station, to offer a complete and exhaustive experience. To connect the various buildings and make the museum route more fluid, functional extensions called train, bypass and walkway were designed. In the project, therefore, various aspects were evaluated that are considered fundamental for contemporary museum design, attentive to the opportunities for developing multiple experiences, including interdisciplinary ones:

♦ environmental and naturalistic aspects

♦ geological, mineralogical, lithological, stratigraphic, structural and above all depositological aspects

♦ industrial archeology and technological aspects

♦ historical-cultural aspects

♦ tourist aspects

During the design phase, particular care was taken in the creation of a circular museum route in which the entrance and exit coincided: for this reason a tunnel was created at the access to the train to better integrate it with the museum route . The shape given to the lateral closure, in addition to ensuring easy maintenance, formally recalls the section of a mining tunnel. The dimensions of the designed envelope are deliberately small and without openings, only the head positioned to the west features a glass window that simulates the end of the tunnel. The closure of the train allows the tunnel to be set up, recreating a mining tunnel through which it is possible to board the locomotive and some carriages.

The museum project of the Cogne mining site has considerable relevance at a tourist accommodation level, as it is potentially the largest visitable mining site in Italy. The objective of the new Cogne Mining Park Museum is to develop a network of thematic routes, aimed at highlighting the peculiarities of the Aosta Valley mining tradition.

The complexity of the project required the integration of multiple disciplines: the design team developed it from a quality integrated design perspective. In fact, the architectural project was accompanied by the technical structural and plant engineering capabilities to obtain an overall artefact as well as having a contribution on geological and environmental aspects for its inclusion in the mountain context.