CULTURAL CENTRE
The project starts by working on pre-existing reinforced concrete structures in an extraordinary agricultural area in the upper Maremma, in a typical Tuscan landscape. The two buildings are recovered and completed to be used for cultural activities through a redevelopment, which takes on functional characteristics to host cultural events.
The preservation of the existing artefacts and the integration with the new dry-mounted infill elements creates a new language in building on the built, enhancing an existing, unfinished building, and the whole, seeking to make it dialogue with elegant finishes such as the new satin-finished steel frames framed by portals and mechanised sunbreakers in oxidised cedar wood. An architectural addition that enhances the brutalist look of the unfinished concrete with the elegance of the new steel and wood overlays. As is the case with the finishes of the under eaves and veranda ceiling in oxidised cedar and the unique details dedicated to the stairs, parapets and veranda in painted steel.
An architectural and environmental project that respects the principles of sustainability and protection of the area's resources, but also efficient and appropriate use of the existing building without increasing the existing volumes to the detriment of the land.
The interiors are simple, essential, characterised by single-colour flooring in the same colour as the external flooring in Pietra di Matraia, a stone quarried in a quarry near Lucca, a stone material that has accompanied my work in many projects.
The building on the sea side is on three levels, while the building on the mountain side is on two levels; they are connected to the ground floor by a partly underground space, which in one area encloses the plant room. On the outside, this space is surmounted by a stone ramp, designed like the ancient ramps with little slope in stone shaped like an owl's beak.
The roof is made of titanium zinc sheets in the same colour as the steel structures, interior and exterior floors, a grey that harmonises the entire building complex with the surrounding vineyard landscape.
