TRILITICA
A mixed-use building - which will house laboratories, offices, and open spaces - designed to reduce its carbon footprint thanks to a concept based on essentiality and compositional purity, applied research into the life cycle and impact of building materials, a green energy supply, and the living quality of workspaces and laboratories designed to meet “my green lab” certification. Trilitica, the research building to be built at Lot B6 of Bolzano's NOI Techpark (South Tyrol’s innovation district) is the new challenge of Busselli Scherer firm. A sustainable project designed to become the first Zero Carbon certified building in Italy for offices and laboratories.
Trilitica’s design is the result of a formal research where static performance of the building and architectural language are aimed at optimization. The work aligns with the industrial soul of the reference neighborhood, settling with coherence and generating a new context marker. The volume defined by the architects is an elongated parallelepiped along the east-west axis whose compact and unidirectional development creates two distinct perceptual fronts. A transparent project, aiming for absolute purity.
“With Trilitica we wanted to create an innovative work in terms of environmental sustainability,” explains Roberto Busselli, partner and co-founder of Busselli Scherer Studio, ”without sacrificing the compositional quality of the architectural object. To enable the building to reach the standards required by the ILFI international certification, we worked on the essentiality of structure and envelope.” The result is a building that develops its strength in the perimeter, thanks to the external positioning of the skeleton, going to free the internal surface that, in this way, acquires maximum flexibility.
The compositional study carried out by the design team focuses on the volume by reducing it to the essential. The building is pure, free of contamination, absolute. Form and statics coincide. In the facade this choice is evident. It starts from the archetypal concept of the portal, an elementary trilithic object, and then develops it in a plastic key to create a strongly identifying element. From the base to the top, the monolith responds to the static behavior of the structure, creating a composition that lightens as it rises.
Sustainability as project player.
The building is designed to meet ILFI (International Living Future Institute) Zero Carbon certification requirements at both the “Operational Carbon” energy level and the “Embodied Carbon” compositional level. This means that 100 percent of the operational energy consumption associated with Trilitica is derived from renewable energy produced on-site and off-site; and that in terms of Embodied Carbon, the design is aimed at containing its impact through optimization and the use of materials with a reduced carbon footprint throughout the life cycle. To be Zero Carbon certified, the building's embodied carbon is less than 500 kg CO²e/m².
During the development of the project, the Busselli Scherer firm, together with a group of experts, dedicated itself to an in-depth analysis of the materials by quantifying their environmental impact. The material identified for the work is a particular type of concrete made from mixtures with a high content of recycled aggregates alongside steel, glass and drywalls responding to specific logics of sustainability. A choice, that of concrete, which while distancing itself from the collective imagery associated with sustainable materials, meets the requirements of neutrality demanded through figures.
Internally, the building is designed from a human centered perspective. To this end, the design includes large openings to encourage the entry of natural light and the presence of interior patios dedicated to greenery where users can linger while benefiting from the positive effects related to Biophilic Design. “In our architectures we give a lot of importance to people's mental and physical well-being. We know that space generates effects on those who live it,” explains architect Busselli, ”favoring more or less positive behaviors. Starting from this principle, we try to conceive spaces that can promote positive experiences. We value natural light, living quality, interrelationships and nature experienced within the building.”
Strengthening Trilitica's green philosophy comes into play an additional certification related to the world of laboratory research: “my green lab.” This certification attests to the reduction of the environmental impact of laboratories through design that encourages virtuous behavior. Internationally recognized, my green lab certification is awarded to laboratories committed to environmentally friendly practices, devoted to reducing waste and minimizing water and energy consumption.
In accordance with the architectural concept of the building, the interior design project is inspired by purity. Essential, sometimes iridescent materialities alternate with furnishings with soft lines. The only color accent that connotes the rooms of the building is blue. A palette inspired by the world of hydrology, rivers, and water - all elements that are protagonists of the building's internal research activities.
Developed over seven above-ground and two underground floors, with a total above-ground volume of 30,600 m³, Trilitica is an ambitious work that makes its own numerous challenges related to the field of architecture and construction. The design of the building will be completed in the coming months with the aim of confirming these virtues of the building once it is operational. Trilitica will rise at NOI Techpark (an acronym for Nature of Innovation) the innovation district of South Tyrol. A massive area, heavy industry yesterday and innovation hub today, the scene of an ambitious architectural project of urban regeneration.
