Nuragic Art Museum | Cagliari | Italy | ARCHEA Associati

ARCHEA PROJECT WITH Franz Prati and MDU Architetti
LOCATION: Cagliari
PROJECT: Museum
CLIENT: Autonomous Region of Sardinia
STRUCTURES: Studio Chessa
SYSTEMS: Milano Progetti SpA
PLAN: 2006 competition - jury mention
COST :€ 36,000,000,00
BUILT AREA: 12.050 sq m

The project site is located on the fascinating seaside of Cagliari, in a suburban area occupied by various structures (stadium, low-income housing, fishing canal harbour). The museum described by the competition announcement has been translated in a project concept which involves architecture, town planning and landscape design. The seascape has been remodelled to give the site an identity, within which context the building acts as landmark. In fact, it consists of a monolith suspended on an artificial dune: the 7 floors of functional spaces (storage areas, laboratories, guest house, auditorium, bookshop, offices, exhibition area, panoramic roof terrace with cafe and library) pivot on a large cavea, a kind of covered square which continues below the building, accessible in every part, connected to the path along the shore. The trajectory of the latter is accentuated by routes leading to a series of collective facilities, with respect to which the museum acts as connecting void and landmark. Ascending from the sea, the dune rises to a level of +8.5 m, outlining the large square where the main entrance is located, to then descend gently towards the tree-covered parking area.........more

Park Of Music And Culture | Florence | Italy | ARCHEA Associati

LOCATION: Firenze ,Italy
PROJECT: theatre and auditorium
CLIENT: Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri
STRUCTURES: Favero&Milan Ingegneria
SYSTEMS:StudioTi
PLAN:2007
COST:€ 80,000,000,00
BUILT AREA: 60,000 sq m
CONTRACTOR: Gia.Fi. Costruzioni S.p.A.
The railway area of Firenze Porta al Prato is delimited on one side by the former Leopolda Station (location of cultural events) and by the underground station – currently under way – and on the other, by the Parco delle Cascine. The vicinity of the current Municipal Theatre (500 m), the hinge between the historical centre and territorial road network, and the Park’s leisure activities, determine the both cultural and playful vocation which the competition proposes to improve with the construction of the new head offices of the Florentine Maggio Musicale. The project is to include: a lyrical theatre to seat 2,000 people, an auditorium with 1,000 seats, including an open-air cavea, technical stage-set workshops, commercial activities with relative services and public spaces. The project tackles the significance of the architectural object not just in terms of structure and function, but also in terms of art and city life: the works of the master Giuliano Vangi show how architecture and sculpture are perceived as elements of a single space, as in an ancient, Renaissance town; and the architectural symbols of perception and qualification derive from the study of how the area is visually approached. The required functions are articulated in a fluid, sculptural form, which identifies each urban rapport in a plastic continuum of projections, indentations and variations in level: it is not structured through hierarchical views, but through focal points and cross axes, presenting itself with conformations and perspective links, and a variety of functions.

The line of approach, along which the access to the underground car park and pedestrian underpass are located, coincides with the access way to the historical centre and with the road network, including that of public transport. It becomes a both functional and formal axis: shops, eateries and leisure centres lure the visitor along the architectural promenade towards the foyer and music spaces. The latter consist of two cantilevered foreparts, which cover respectively the terraces of the open-air cavea – projection of the concert hall – and part of the square beneath the auditorium. The elements develop in a crescendo, which culminates in the 40 m-high scene tower. The façade of building, articulated in such a way, overlooking 300 m of public urban space, contains a much sought-after perceptive value within. The stone blocks, enhanced by the whitish-green enamelled terracotta cladding, a historic memory of the Florentine Romanesque period and of the Tuscan ceramics tradition, are opened up with glazed surfaces, through which the building gradually reveals its internal articulations...more

MILANOFIORI 2000 | Milan | ARCHEA Associati

LOCATION: Milano Italia
PROJECT: residential - commercial
CLIENT: Milanofiori 2000 S.r.l.
STRUCTURES: Intertecno
SYSTEMS:Intertecno
PLAN:2007
REALISATION:under construction
COST:€ 29.000.000,00
BUILT AREA: 24.848 sq m

The design of a building in the centre of the Milanofiori 2000 area is based on the indications of the master plan prepared by EEA Architects, in which a selection of Italian firms have been asked to participate. The complexity of the project lies in the particular conditions of the plot which is “embedded” between the high level of the artificial ground – which covers the parking areas below, thus creating the new central urban square – and the lower level of the park. The building also acts as backdrop, barrier between the residential area and the shopping area and takes the form of a tall urban front capable of collecting and containing the visual sphere of the public space and the collective life. The density and overall volume of the project is therefore “necessary” even if it proves to be decidedly problematic due to the proportions and overall dimensions. This difficulty has been interpreted as a key of interpretation of the project, which has been re-modulated and “scaled” through a subdivision into two lower units, one with three floors and another with six, superimposed but somewhat shifted. The building is consequently coherent with the tall office blocks with ten or eleven floors designed by Van Egeraat, while the fragmentation make the building reacquire, architecturally speaking, a dimension that is more proportionate to the park and the buildings in front of it......more