PADANIA ACQUE S.p.A. ANALYSIS LABORATORY
The extension of Padania Acque S.p.A.'s water analysis laboratory is located in an industrial area close to the floodplain agricultural sector in the Po and Morbasco Local Park of supra-municipal interest in Cremona.
The new building - a true pavilion in the landscape - is divided into two functional blocks housing the laboratories for water quality analyses by the company, services and accessories.
The interior spaces are configured to optimise the analysis activities and routes for users and visitors.
Outside, there is a didactic garden with an open-air classroom for disseminating information and raising schoolchildren's awareness of the protection of water resources.
The technological solutions adopted and the materials used ensure high performance parameters that translate into a building organism in NZEB class with very low energy consumption, innovation emblem in harmony with the vocation of the surrounding area. The design choices favour the use of reusable raw materials, the enhancement and implementation of vegetational species, the use of natural lighting, and energy supply from renewable sources.
The architectural design relates seamlessly to the existing context. The elements and materials characterising the industrial landscape become the reference for the language describing the new architecture.
The structure is made entirely of galvanised steel profiles and beams in a close dialogue with the existing technological bodies; a structural façade system with painted aluminium profiles defines the east and west fronts, creating a sequence of differentiated curtain walls in glass and opaque metal panels.
The material and chromatic continuity is contrasted by the use of an architectural typology alien to the site. The decision to adopt the iconography of the “pavilion”, conceived according to the characteristics of Japanese architecture, fulfils a dual function. The first is to communicate the uniqueness of this construction with respect to its context, highlighting its representative function, delegated to the design of the plinth, the row of columns, and the large cantilever coverage. The second is to establish itself in the context, allowing, through its horizontal development, a balanced relationship with the tree specimens and with the surroundings, favouring visual communication between the interior of the laboratory spaces and the exterior of the place in which it is located.
Through large windows to the east and west, the surrounding landscape penetrates into the building, connoting the work spaces. In a similar but opposite manner, the workplace shows and presents itself to the city as a transparent manifestation of the valuable service performed for the community. In particular, the view from the inside towards the outside allows to observe on the west side a view of the landscape connoted by the historic city and the system of agricultural open spaces to the south of the city, with views guided and modelled by the typical presence of poplars; on the east side it overlooks the industrial context of which the pavilion itself is part.
