pozzolana — thomasmopinviers.com

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pozzolana

"There is a type of powder to which nature has given an admirable property. It is found in the Baïes region and in the municipal lands surrounding Mount Vesuvius. Mixed with lime and rubble, not only does it give solidity to ordinary buildings, but also the breakwaters that it is used to build in the sea acquire great consistency under water. Here's how I explain the cause. Under these mountains and in all this territory, there are a great number of boiling fountains; they would not exist if there were not at the bottom of the earth great fires produced by incandescent masses of sulphur, alum or bitumen. The vapour that exhales from these deep reservoirs of fire and flame, spreading hot through the veins of the earth, makes it light, and the tuff that is produced is arid and spongy. Thus, when these three things, which are produced in the same way by the violence of fire, come together through water to form a single body, they quickly harden and become so solid that neither the waves of the sea nor the force of the waters can break them apart.”
VITRUVE DE L'ARCHITECTURE.LIVRE II.

The project is divided into two phases: a research phase on the site of the Phlegean Fields, and more specifically the Piscina Mirabilis, a Roman cistern built of tufa stone dating from the time of Augustus. One of the largest and oldest Roman water cisterns, it was originally used to supply the military fleet at Misene, and its composition, construction system and materials are particularly interesting. Pozzolana is a volcanic rock from the Neapolitan region (it takes its name from Pozzoli, a town to the west of Naples). Mixed with lime, these materials are used to create a completely watertight plaster covering all the inside walls of the cistern.
Piscina Mirabilis is the name given to this initially purely functional and infrastructural place by Petrarch, a poet at the dawn of the Renaissance. He introduced the notion of humanism, which would later be taken up in all the artistic endeavours of the Renaissance in Italy. The project combines a research text, printed images and pozzolana sculptures.