Architects: Renzo Piano Building Workshop Location: Trento, Italy Architect: Renzo Piano Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Courtesy of RPBW, RPBW – Stefano Goldberg, RPBW – Paolo Pelanda, Colombo Costruzioni – Alessandro Gadutti, RPBW – Cristiano Zaccaria
Project Area: 11710.0 sqm Client: Castello Sgr S.p.A. + Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali
The redevelopment project for the former Michelin factory site is located on an 11-hectare brownfield industrial area adjacent to the Adige river. The site is bound on the north by the historic Palazzo delle Albere, on the south by Monte Baldo Road and on the east by the railway.
Despite its proximity to the city centre, the area had been cut off from the surrounding urban context due to the presence of the factory, and then completely neglected with its subsequent closing down with the presence of the railway.
The primary goal of the RPBW intervention is to re-establish this relationship by recreating the density and stratification of the nearby city centre. The plan will thus include mixed-use functions dedicated to housing, leisure, commerce, offices, cultural spaces and a wide park of 5 hectares overlooking the river.
The public vocation of the project is manifested with the Museum of Sciences and the Congress Center located on the North and South of the area. The two public building works like two big magnets for the entire complex.
Facing the Palazzo delle Albere, the Museum of Science is composed of a series of volumes and voids which seem to float on a stretch of water, thus increasing the effects of light and shade. Wide pitched glass and zinc roofs adapt to the geometries of the buildings making this one of the main architectural features of the project.
The Congress Center is a complex of 5 different halls each one of them with specific characteristics and contents.
The entire plan is energy efficient. Particular attention is given to to the use of material and design. Photovoltaic panels and a trigeneration energy plant will supply the site with the necessary resources ; the Museum and the Congress Center will achieve the highest rating, the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
