PIOBBICO TOWER
The work is one of the installations proposed for the Festival di Microarchitettura 2024 (FE.M 2024), an event dedicated to enhancing the landscape and the way it is inhabited. The project is located in a rural area in the municipality of Piobbico (PU) and represents a synthesis of some of the main local traditions and the archaeological features of the area.
The territory surrounding the cities of Pesaro and Urbino, and Piobbico in particular, benefits from the presence of timeless crafts that are still remembered and celebrated today. A classic example is that of the charcoal burners, an ancient community producing charcoal that made the forest its main place of activity, where wood was collected and an ingenious device, the charcoal kiln, was installed. The structure consisted of a central core on which a thick layer of wood was stacked, then covered with branches and finally with wet earth. Every component of the charcoal kiln was essential for the production of charcoal, but the whole process started from the central chimney, where the fire was lit and the smoke spread.
The history of ancient crafts is joined by the presence of important cultural and artistic monuments. Near Piobbico, in fact, lie the remains of the famous Castello dei Pecorari, which stands on top of a hill right above the project area. Among the ruins, it is possible to recognize a circular tower that probably functioned as a lookout over the surrounding territory.
Integrating these elements, the project's microarchitecture has become an enlarged chimney that on one side echoes the construction system of the charcoal kiln and at the same time replicates the verticality of the nearby tower. The overall height of the structure, almost 10 meters, is achieved through the superimposition of wooden elements alternated in size 10x10x80 cm, creating an internal void space of 60x60 cm. In this central space, for the first 1.50 meters, there are three concrete monoliths of 60x60x50 cm that serve as ballast. The overlapping of the wooden slats, in addition to recalling the structure of the ancient charcoal kilns, conceptually reproduces the process of stacking wood.
The new chimney aims to become a "domestic hearth," a place of meeting and exchange, designed to constitute a new landmark within the largely flat landscape of the area, a flag that draws from the historical and traditional memory of the place. The microarchitecture of the new tower is "micro" only in its typology, but it is in every respect an enlargement of a traditional construction element capable of being permanently imprinted in the memory of residents and passersby.
