In preparation for groundbreaking, Bernard Tschumi Architects have released the final design for the ANIMA (Arts, Nature, Ideas, Music, Action) cultural center in Grottammare (Ascoli Piceno, Italy). The 30-meter “perfect square” will offer the Piceno region and the Adriatic coast a public centre for collecting and cultivating the broadest manifestations of artistic, creative and productive culture.
An animation, the architect's description and more images after the break.
From the architects:
A perfect square and a permeable envelope. Placed at the fringes of the urban fabric, between the sea and hills that characterize the landscape, the building is clearly visible and immediately accessible from the Adriatic highway. On the outside it looks like a compact body, a perfect square which, while in some ways alluding to the notion of enclosure and protection, breaks with this immediately demonstrating a high level of permeability.
A reflection on the definition of façade is in fact what brought Bernard Tschumi to create an informal solution for the grand vertical surfaces that enclose the building. These walls find the strongest expression on the southern side where the building’s interior spaces are accessed.
“The outer envelope,” said Bernard Tschumi, “consists of one single material, a lightly textured concrete. Its deeply recessed openings accommodate entrances and windows. ANIMA is a friendly ‘fortress’ of culture.”
The façades system. The façades are the features that immediately characterize Tschumi’s proposal and represent one of the themes around which his theoretical thinking mainly centred. Each of the four sides, plus the top side of the building understood as a fifth façade, explore a vocabulary of openings establishing mediation between the interior spaces and the territory. The façades develop a language that tends to negate the concepts of arbitrariness and self-referentiality which, according to Tschumi, are not in step with the sobriety imposed by these times of crisis nor with the history of the Italian territory and in particular with the Piceno history.
“The time of ‘Iconism” seemed to be over, together with the arbitrary sculptural shapes of the recent past, often done without consideration for context, content, or budget.”
The systems of courtyards and the main room. Upon entering the quadrangular body, the visitor finds himself in a space partly broken up: meaning it is understood as both interior and exterior. The complexity of the space is determined by the rotation of a large rectangular volume that occupies the centre of the building and contains the main room with 1,500 seats, which are configured according to the varying capacity requirements. The rotation of the volume creates four large courtyards each of which the main room can open up to, creating in the end a series of fluid and dynamic pathways, traversed by either the eye or the visitor.
Moreover, an articulate system of ramps permits movement, creating perspectives at varying heights each of which illustrates new ways in which the space may be understood. Adjacent to the main hall, connected by a multiplicity of pathways, are a series of laboratories, offices, the café and ancillary spaces which make up the rest of the building.
A choral programme. The processuality with which the entire project is carried out is based on the participation of all parties involved. Each decision is shared during a series of meetings with the people and operators involved in the project. The volition that guided the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli Piceno in the development of the project was to urge the community to work for a common aim in order to identify itself through a remarkable architectural work.
ANIMA will be Tschumi’s first project in Italy, upon completion in 2017.
The building, commissioned by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli Piceno and received by the Municipality of Grottammare, will be part of the retrospective that the Georges Pompidou Centre will dedicate to Bernard Tschumi’s work on 30 April of this year.
Architects
Location
Grottammare Ascoli Piceno, ItalyProject Manager
Marco Marcucci - Municipality of GrottammareGeneral Coordinator
Alfonso Giancotti / Studio Associato di Architettura Elia-Giancotti (Roma)Client
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli PicenoStructural Engineer
Michele Tiberi / CAED International Srl (Roma)Acoustic, Lighting and Multimedia System Designer
Enrico Moretti / BIOBYTE Srl (Milano)Electrical Engineer
Alessandro Federici / Studio Tecnico ing. Alessandro Federici (Ascoli Piceno)Mechanical and Hydraulic Engineer
Giuseppe Puglia / Studio Tecnico ing. Giuseppe Puglia (Ascoli Piceno)Safety Coordinator
Fabio Giannini / Studio di consulenza e progettazione ing. Fabio Giannini (Comunanza, AP)Geologist
Vittorio Marucci / Studio Associato di Geologia e Geotecnica Marucci (Ascoli Piceno)Surveyor
Antonio Morganti / Studio Tecnico Associato Morganti (Spinetoli, AP)Communication Consultant
Marco Brizzi / Image MEDIA AGENCY (Firenze)Area
10000.0 sqmProject Year
2017Photographs
Location
Grottammare Ascoli Piceno, ItalyProject Year
2017Photographs
Courtesy of Bernard Tschumi ArchitectsArea
10000.0 m2Mechanical Engineer
Giuseppe Puglia / Studio Tecnico ing. Giuseppe Puglia (Ascoli Piceno)Hydraulic Engineer
Giuseppe Puglia / Studio Tecnico ing. Giuseppe Puglia (Ascoli Piceno)
