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Architects: LCA Architetti / luca compri architetti
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Andrea Ceriani
Text description provided by the architects. For its latest project, LCA Architetti designed the building’s outer facades and provided energy consulting to meet the goal of an energy-efficient, completely passive industrial space. The project’s main goal was to highlight the building’s high level of sustainability; this was achieved through the architecture itself, and specifically the design of two main facades (West and South). These face two very high-traffic roads: the A8 Highway on the West side, and the State Road 20 on the South side.
The West facade - which faces the highway - aims at clearly representing Novello’s work and business: logistics and the production of wooden homes and packaging. This was the inspiration for the architectural plan, which took the “box” concept and multiplied it on the West side, by warping the typical shed shape without completely changing it – thus making it more contemporary and modern through the plastic and 3D walls. Seven big boxes are placed in an elegant row, creating a rhythmic architecture; in contrast, they seem to levitate over the shadow of the platform roof underneath, which juts out almost 4m. The southern facade is linear and almost completely clad in larch wood slats.
Overall, this project is by size alone one of the main examples of a bioecological and sustainable wooden prefabricated warehouse. The building was put together by the company’s staff, and it does not feature an air conditioning/heating system. The external building’s significant insulation, heat recovery from the production machines and the active and passive use of renewable energy sources (sunlight and air) guarantee the building’s total energy independence and completely cancels CO2 emissions.
Using almost exclusively wood as a raw material for this project was the most significant design choice by volume alone (5,000 cubic meters) but also from an environmental, qualitative and communication point of view (as it immediately represents the company’s business – wooden homes and packaging). The project’s main characteristics involve a reduced use of soil, prefabrication, sustainability, energy saving and the use of natural materials from renewable sources, such as wood and cellulose. The Novello srl third-party designed industrial space is the first project of its kind in Italy – and one of the few of its size in Europe.
