Architectural Competition

The “Magnifica Fabbrica” International Design Competition, promoted by the Municipality of Milan with the Fondazione Teatro alla Scala, has selected as the winning entry the design proposal of the Italo-Spanish group composed of FRPO Rodriguez y Oriol and WALK Architecture & Landscape of Madrid and SD Partners of Milan. 

The competition brief envisages the creation of the new site for the Teatro alla Scala laboratories and warehouses and the expansion of Parco della Lambretta, with the aim of regenerating the area located in the Lambrate district, once occupied by the Innocenti car manufacturer plant and now involved in a urban regeneration process. 

The intention is to create a new cultural, artistic and production centre, bringing all the phases of the creative process into close proximity, from design to production, offering the public the chance to take part in the birth of the shows, and to bring citizens closer to the world of theater. 

In addition to that, the expansion of Parco della Lambretta is aimed to become a real landmark for the district, as well as a place for gathering and leisure time. It will include the recovery and integration in the park of the so-called “Palazzo di Cristallo”, a monumental testimony of industrial archaeology.

The designers responsible for the winning proposal are: Pablo Oriol and Fernando Rodriguez for FRPO, Juan Tur Mc Glone for WALK and Massimo Giuliani, Alessandro Viganò and Beatrice Meroni for SD Partners. 

The multidisciplinary team also included Studio Gibelli, Ing. Luca Stefanutti, Agroservice, TRM and Mecanismo Ingegneria. 

The competition was divided in two phases in an open anonymous form and received a total of 59 entries.

Programmatic units

Milan, a metropolis in constant movement, dynamic and productive, always reinventing itself, today opens its secret heart. A heart in which others beat, with different rhythms, moved by skillful hands that forge treasures invisible to most. Vibrating center of the city and meeting point between industriousness and genius, La Scala and the Magnifica Fabbrica, are called today to take a new step in the history of the city.

Technology, culture and landscape

Magnificent for its size and location, the new Fabbrica will open its treasures to the public view to reveal the work of artists who create true works of art for La Scala shows. The Magnifica Fabbrica will thus be able to reveal its light and illuminate the renewal of the city, rebuilding a new balance between technology, culture and landscape, caring for the environment as a home, and reconnecting the living fabric of the city.

Biodiversity Green Factory

The expansion of the Parco della Lambretta will accompany the new Magnifica Fabbrica as the driving force behind the transformation of the ex-Innocenti area, whose soul will be the recovery of the grandiose structure of the Palazzo di Cristallo, the former production site for millions of lambrettas that have filled the streets of Italy and the world, and that will become a Green Biodiversity Factory, a place for citizens to participate in a great collective work of art, to fill the future of the city with green.

Canals, meadows, and rows of trees

The Parco della Lambretta project exemplifies a balanced relationship between natural resources and human activities, conceiving the landscape as a resilient green infrastructure. It is based on a circular concept of the water cycle, an element that has characterized the development of the city, inspired by the traditional elements of Milan’s agricultural heritage: canals, ditches, meadows, pedestrian paths and rows of trees, offering a natural environment and a usable public space for all. Water regains its leading role and becomes an indissoluble link between the Parco and the Fabbrica through the Water Gardens, a large green infrastructure for natural phytopurification, which will offer unique educational and sensory experiences.

Zero Energy Building

The Magnifica Fabbrica will be a ZEB (Zero Energy Building), it will produce more energy than it will consume, with a 3,600 kW photovoltaic system on the translucent roof and a gigantic open-cycle geothermal system, which will contribute to the purification of groundwater. The aim is to create a more rational and sustainable place, where La Scala’s production, rehearsal and storage operations can be combined in a very precise spatial design, responding to the needs raised by the Teatro alla Scala in the international competition.

The Torre dell’Acqua, a symbol of renewal

The new building and the park merge into the Piazza della Torre dell’Acqua, a symbol of renewal. The Space of Dreams sits at the head of the Fabbrica, a large container of visions of the future, where La Scala will be the protagonist of a revitalization that will involve schools, associations, companies, institutions, organizations.

Magic behind the scenes

Beginning and ending in the square, the Anello is a journey that will take the visitor to discover the magical world “behind the scenes”: more than 65,000 square meters of production spaces for sets, tailors, props, dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, warehouses and deposits. The new Magnifica Fabbrica will be open those who wish to witness the cultural and creative life that is hidden in this attractive heart.

The post Magnifica Fabbrica was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

Vienna and Linz-based practice destilat completely reorganized and redesigned Weinmanufaktur Clemens Strobl in 2019, as the centerpiece of a historical 4,000-m² ensemble that includes business premises and a manor house in Kirchberg am Wagram (Lower Austria).

The interior design distinguishes itself with building-block-like cubes, light as a central design element, grey in all its nuances, and aesthetics that highlight the work processes involved in wine-making. A vaulted cellar, tasting room, kitchen, and office form massive spatial components that are interwoven into the structural shell, define spatial borders and take over several functions.

The vast open spaces between these components make them usable in many different ways and provide a big stage for light and all its effects. Exposed concrete walls, polished concrete floors, grey varnished spruce wood, anthracite-coloured Eternit, scaled steel, glass, and grey-washed brickwork – that is the combination of historic and modern materials characterizes the interior design, as its reduced colour palette brings out the fine nuances of the materials’ aesthetics.

Elements of industrial architecture underline that these premises are used for work; the characteristics of the wine as a natural product are translated in a puristic and simplified way, with a sober charm. These aesthetics also have a significant impact on the outdoor areas.

The project is the winner of the Large Workspace category at the 2020 Dezeen Design Awards.

destilat design studio

Monika Nguyen

The post Weinmanufaktur Clemens Strobl was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The former Lourcine barracks are located in Paris’ 13th district and comprise a parade ground with accompanying military buildings erected in 1875. The project calls for elements of the University of Paris I – library, lecture theatre, classrooms, offices – to be installed within the old buildings and in basement levels under the parade ground.

The project aims to make the most of this Parisian heritage, taking a precision approach that will as far as possible retain the existing spaces and preserve the historic character of the site. ChartierDalix is seeking to adapt the project and its new activities to the buildings without erasing their past. The parade ground retains its central, unifying and symbolic role, as a landscaped forecourt sloping down to frame the new access to the gallery and lecture theatre. Lecture and classrooms are inserted into the existing buildings, making the most of their spatial qualities (ceiling heights, noble materials).

The qualities of the existing site are magnified by the complete freeing up of the spaces: the simple application of flocking on the underside of the arches (acoustics and fire prevention), as well as the complete absence of false ceilings, thus revealing the technical installations, helps to maintain the existing volumes.

A certain “brutalism”, linked to the visibility of all the utility networks, contrasts with the fine details of the made-to-measure furniture and the nobility of the raw materials (steel, solid oak, floorboards).

For the interior design of the reading rooms in the library, we have chosen to position the aisles along the façades to allow the light to freely enter the building and thus free up the view of the succession of windows.

A monumental winding staircase marks the entrance to the library at both the garden level and the ground floor up to the first floor. Its size makes it a remarkable architectural feature and reveals the volume of the building and the height of a whole section.

The eastern end of the connecting gallery of the Lourcine site leads to a section that opens onto the Rue Broca. The reception level thus provides a direct link with the outside and the street at garden level.

In the upper floors, a wide and generous walkway filled with natural light provides the opportunity to create a meeting place over several floors: each floor is thus linked by the main, open staircase that provides direct access to the classrooms without taking the closed staircases.

The garden level gallery, linked to these walkways, transforms them into places to share and exchange in which a number of alcoves have been built for working: building 2 thus becomes a sort of “learning centre” perfectly adapted to new ways of learning and teaching.

The 500-seat amphitheatre, a major feature of the Lourcine campus, is installed at the lowest point of the parade ground where the old car park was and along the north / south axis of the site. It is accessed through a gallery entirely covered with self-weathering steel that provides a continuity with the central esplanade.

The self-weathering steel, a warm, vibrant and changing material, accompanies the visitor throughout all the outside public areas and extends right into the interior. It is a skin that shows the marks of time and embodies the new face of the Lourcine campus.

Chartier Dalix Architects

Sergio Grazia

The post Lourcine Barracks Rehabilitation was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

In 2014 the Barcelona City Council held an architectural competition for the landscape planning of an interior urban block and a sports facility consisting of an indoor heated swimming pool and a sports court. The winning proposal by architects Anna Noguera and Javier Fernandez, recently complete, was valued for its landscape integration of a singular greened building in an interior urban block and its commitment to sustainability and respect for the environment.

Turó de la Peira Quarter is characterized by the abundance of low-cost social housing from the ’60s and a high density of buildings. A district with a lack of green areas and a shortage of public facilities. The urban environment before the intervention was an unstructured space consisting of a sum of residual spaces; a space occupied by a sports court tucked between neighboring buildings, and a pool of obsolete facilities. An urban landscape of hard pavement, concrete walls and total absence of vegetation.

The concentration of the two facilities in a single building allowed to free space to create a new garden. A space of permeable surfaces, where the unleveled slopes are bridged with green slopes. A place of social relationship, a preamble to the new facility. A garden that provides quality of life and serves as a support of biodiversity.

The new facility is composed of the overlap of two large spaces; a Heated swimming pool on the ground floor and sports court on the upper floor. The building is placed half-buried, adapting to the topography and bridging the difference in level between the two streets. The facade to Sant Isle Street has an urban character, with a corner porch that extends the sidewalk and invites us to enter.

The building minimizes its impact on the garden with a green gallery that surrounds it. The volume is one more element of the garden, not mimicking but dialoguing with it.

The proposal places special emphasis on the perceptions that the space transmits to the user. The natural lighting, the vegetation and the use of wood provide a warm atmosphere, away from the coldness of other similar facilities.

The design of the building has been carried out with passive architecture criteria. The compact and embedded volume in the ground minimizes the façade surface avoiding thermal losses. The climatic conditioning and ventilation of the court take place exclusively with natural systems. 24 skylights and lateral windows monitored by sensors, ensure proper cross-ventilation and lighting. The thermal insulation of the whole enclosure has been selectively treated according to solar orientation.

The building has an aerothermal system that allows the recovery of heat for the production of hot water. The photovoltaic panels occupy the entire roof deck and generate 95.534 kWh per year.

The building frame is in 100% Prefabricated Laminated Wood. The excellent characteristics of the wood concerning its lifecycle were one of the reasons for choosing the prefabricated system in laminated wood. It was also assessed its good mechanical performance, its adequacy to the environment of the pool, its lightness and consequent savings in the foundations and its short construction time (8 weeks).

A green gallery surrounds the building protecting it from the sun and creating a bioclimatic space. The plantation system is hydroponic, chosen for its lightness, the durability of the substrate, the capacity of water retention and ease of installation. From the court, the entire green facade is perceived through the curtain wall, enjoying its flowering changes according to the time of the year.

A large tank located in the basement collects the water from the roof for recycling and use for the entire irrigation of the green facade through a hydroponic system. In the garden’s site development, draining strips at the bottom of the slopes collect rainwater to return it to the water table.

Arquitectura Anna Noguera, (Anna Noguera, Javier Fernandez)

The post Turó de la Peira was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

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