Forchheim , Germany

Contemporany life

Anna Bella Cappelleri, Berni Jo, Ilario Tassone Architect, Clementina Albanese

Urban design and architectural concept The strategic position of the project, often experienced as marginal despite its being very close to the city’s major activities, expresses an architectural and urban potential of great interest. The project acts as an interpreter of industrial archaeology and the urban, social and cultural stratification that largely connotes urban centres in Europe, introducing itself as a vehicle for the recovery of the place’s identity. The main objective is to create an innovative form of urbanity through the creation of a multi-functional city district that sets forth dynamic processes of social aggregation and urban regeneration.

The program intervention responds to the needs that were manifested by the local administration with a project proposal that can unify and significantly enhance the place in which it is developed to redefine its identity. The quality and aspects of the area’s internal connections are also to be redefined by favouring and fostering pedestrian routes in light of the new functions devised for the creation of wide-open spaces where public and private activities are simultaneously carried out. Another important aspect and focus of the project is the optimization of the entire complex’s energetic production and performance, with special attention placed on its landscape and environmental aspects.

This project intervention, through its general scheme and development, is to ultimately generate a new and recognizable urban icon: a reference point for orientation within the city that can activate processes of urban and social renewal. The new “pavilion of contemporary life” building is configured as a singular volume with scale, dimension and facades that evocatively recall the industrial character of the project area. The volume is lifted about three meters above the ground level, held up by three supporting structures, and progresses, with height differences, in all directions.

In correspondence with the pavilion’s ground projection, the pavement of the square in front is interrupted to then continue with another gradated darker coloured pavement, creating the impression of the built volume’s levitation. The interior is conceived as a single large and open space, adaptable to any possible spatial configuration, from temporarily arranged exposition spaces to permanent ones; from spaces for performances to places for workshops, and all possible cultural activities. A landscaped garden is planned as greenery along the covering roof structure, where it will be possible to admire the city and its natural surroundings. The large-scale voids that are planned for the roof-structure suggest a sort of planimetric continuity with the residential system that characterises the urban fabric of the entire area. Along the horizontal green platform, situated at the edge of roof-structure’s south-east, a 6-metre landmark sculpture is to stand-out. Visible from far away, this notable figure will strongly distinguish the space of the roof-garden as well as the public plaza over which it hovers.

The building’s façade, with its micro-perforated panels, confers an industrial character to the building, while allowing light to play its important role. It is in fact light that strongly characterises the interiors towards which the design of the façade is projected, thus creating a near surreal atmosphere. The internal spatiality is likewise characterised by a system of vertical connectors, which are unique to the structural body that holds up the entire pavilion. These structural aspects take on a veritable sculptural form within the pavilion itself, as does the plaza situated out in front, allowing for one to clearly perceive how the three volumes hold up the entire pavilion, which almost seems to lift itself up off the ground, leaving the strong mark of a building at its base. In addition, another important part of the project in conjunction with the pavilion plans for an underground parking area over 6000 sq. metres to service the entire complex.

In the northern part of the project area, there are to be a series of residential buildings and a hotel, planned for in connection with the extant residential system, according to its scale and construction typology. At the ground floor level, the residences are to be integrated with small store-shops that face public spaces and private gardens, obtaining a balanced level of integration. There is also the planned scheme for a possible fusion between lived-in spaces and work-spaces; in an era in which digital telecommunications has a growing influence on our daily lives and in our work, we aimed to program a space for tele-jobs within every home. It is precisely this space that characterises the residences and strengthens the passage between public and private realms.

The project proposes for a new urban polarity that sets forth an important dialogue between the new and the extant, while maintaining intact certain structures that currently occupy the project area, in favouring those that best adapt to the needs of contemporary daily living. It was decided to keep the two buildings facing one another on the two main roads in order to consolidate the relations of historic continuity within the urban context as well as maintain their internal spatial configuration. This can allow for different and innovative uses that are perfectly adaptable to the new functions foreseen in the project. Particular attention is placed on the impact that the project intervention is to have on the environment in planning for the use of local materials and innovative systems for energy conservation.

Access and fruition are guaranteed by the presence of bike-paths, both within the project area and along the main road, with tree-lined routes, side-walks and resting plazas, all assuring a dynamic mobility for the area, without foregoing the elements of urban décor that are conceived as a perfectly integrated system of the project.

This project is one that moves towards a complex simplicity with apparently contemporary characteristics, capable of synthesising and effectively transmitting the very character traits of the place in which it is inserted. The aim is not only to sufficiently respond to the commissioning committee’s requests but also to create and generate new dynamic needs and necessities.

Europaconcorsi Beta

Contemporany life