Inverse Ruin by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh: A Steel Ghost of an Archaic Temple in Southern Italy

In the Archaeological Park of Herakleia, along the quiet landscape of Italy’s Ionian plain, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh introduces Inverse Ruin — a temporary installation that reimagines the footprint of an ancient temple through a contemporary architectural gesture.

Created as part of Siris, a larger interpretive program curated by STUDIO STUDIO STUDIO with artistic direction by Antonio Oriente, the project offers a new way to see, understand, and inhabit the remnants of the Archaic Temple.

A Steel Frame That Suspends the Memory of an Inverse Ruin

Approached from the park’s main path, Inverse Ruin appears as a precise steel outline lifted from the temple’s original plan.Rather than reconstructing the sanctuary, the Belgian duo opted to trace its geometry—letting air, sky, and shifting daylight complete the volume.

Slim steel members delineate the historic footprint without touching the fragile archaeology below, allowing visitors to walk under and through the suspended drawing.

As one moves across the site, the frame shifts between:

• clear architectural silhouette

• dematerialized floating grid

• transparent container of light and shadow

This duality—visible yet immaterial—creates a ghost-like temple hovering above its own remains.

A Dialogue Between Order and Fragment

The installation sharpens the contrast between the ordered precision of steel and the irregular, time-worn stones of the ancient foundation.

Seen from afar, the frame reads as a chromatic grid against the Italian sky. Up close, the shadows align with the broken stones, revealing the temple’s scale, orientation, and sacred footprint.

By working only with essential lines, Inverse Ruin becomes a walkable drawing, transforming memory into spatial experience.

Low-Impact Architecture with High Interpretive Power

The project’s construction principles reflect the mission of Siris: to introduce reversible, low-impact interventions within the archaeological field.

The lattice:

• lightly touches the terrain

• avoids excavation or disturbance

• stands temporarily yet precisely

• enhances the legibility of the ancient plan

In this way, the installation respects both the material fragility and the symbolic weight of the site.

Part of a Larger Cultural Reading

Siris includes works by Selva Aparicio and Max Magaldi, each responding to different layers of Herakleia’s sanctuary landscape.Inverse Ruin serves as the architectural anchor—an intervention that connects contemporary spatial thinking with the structured legacy of ancient ritual space.

Commissioned by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the project emerged from detailed research, site surveys, and extended dialogue with the local archaeological context.

A Contemporary Framework for Ancient Memory

With Inverse Ruin, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh demonstrate how architecture can clarify history without reconstructing it, and how the essential lines of a lost structure can still shape the present.

What remains is neither a ruin nor a reconstruction—but a suspended memory, a quiet frame holding the space where a temple once stood.

Written by Otávio Santiago, a designer dedicated to translating ideas into visual rhythm. His work spans motion, 3D, and graphic design — connecting creativity, technology, and human emotion.