CASTELLANETA, ITALY (1994)
Set outside the town of Castellaneta Marina, in the region of Puglia, Italy, separated from the Ionian Sea only by a protected forest, Nuova Concordia is a 1,500,000 sq.ft. resort community of villas, shopping complex, international hotel, sporting facilities, meeting center, golf course, health spa and night clubs. To preserve the primal beauty of this site, Ambasz embraced the architecture and the roadways with landscaped berms and flowering trellises to make them appear like natural, undulating hillsides within the landscape. In this way, a medium density development is virtually turned into a park by the sea and one hundred percent of the land covered by the buildings is returned to the commnunity as greenery. The complex is organized around freeform artificial lakes, the largest of which forms the nucleus of an international hotel. A landscaped island of shopping arcades is accessible by pedestrian bridges or by boats from the open public entry plaza. Surrounding the international hotel is an assortment of housing types and private villas, becoming lower and lower as they approach the forest, thus maximizing views and diminishing the overall impact on this spectacular site.
