In 79 AD. Ercolano and Pompeii were destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius and today are among the most matter to archaeological areas of the Mediterranean, protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Renzo Piano was commissioned to design the new Archaeological Museum of Herculaneum which should rise next to the excavation, in an area forthcoming to the “Pavilion of the boat” which could be removed to make way for the new building.
The new museum should be a basement structure with a minimum impact on the landscape and covered with a green roof, on the model of other interventions Piano as the California Academy of Sciences of San Francisco.
The Museum will be funded by the Packard Foundation, supported by David Woodley Packard, seventy years old, son of the founder of Hewlett-Packard, for years the archaeological funders, with investment of 16 million euro in the last 10 years.
The museum will house the finds that are crammed in the deposits of Ercolano and some frescoes and statues that are confined in the deposits of the Naples National Archaeological Museum.