In a medieval Italian town, a water tower built in the 1930’s had become a vestige of fascism. The tower and it’s associated subterranean cistern under the town’s main piazza, had fallen into disuse. This proposal transforms the tower into a media center which would also become a bridge between the middle ages and the age of multimedia.

The journey begins underground with a connection to the existing rain water cistern under the piazza, converted into a small club, with a skylight in the center which is also the base of a fountain in the middle of the piazza. The fountain brings water-refracted light into the club during the day and shines the shimmering light into the piazza at night. The journey then proceeds up the tower as a timeline through the evolution of media, beginning with the printed word (reading room) on the ground level, continuing into a soundscape on the second floor, then a screening room on the third floor, an augmented and virtual reality space above that, and ending at the top with an observatory which brings the user back to reality with a direct engagement with the sky.