UNA FACCIATA PER PESCARA
LOCATION Pescara, Italy
YEAR 1991
THEME Architecture, Cultural spaces
STATUS Built
DESIGNERS Antonio Monestiroli
TEAM Antonio Paolucci
The design of a facade, without functional constraints, requires an effort to generalize the theme so that we can reach a paradigmatic solution that is valid for the principles on which it is built rather than for its appropriateness to the building for which it is designed. In the case at hand was a collective leisure building carved out of an industrial building of which, precisely, a façade overlooking a small square where other similar buildings face. The theme assumed, for the design of the facade is that of construction. Of the representation of the act of construction through the construction of the trilithic system on three superimposed planes.
The system of beams and pillars was to be built of iron and leaned against an exposed brick wall in which a single ground-floor opening is cut out. A large vertical pivot door single entrance to the hall in the facade. The beam-pillar system was made of reinforced concrete instead of iron. In order to emphasize the paradigmatic sense of the construction, we wanted to bring it to an abstract level of representation. Thus the pillars and beams were stuccoed and painted in ivory gloss enamel. The effect is that of an, indeed abstract, model of the construction rather than an actual construction. To accentuate the theatrical character of the facade at the top of the brickwork six lamps protrude from the wall and illuminate the floor in front of the facade with six spotlights. The effect is striking. The façade is evenly and dramatically illuminated with reflected light.
Photo by Stefano Topuntoli
IN
Massimo Ferrari (edit by) Antonio Monestiroli Opere, progetti e studi di architettura Electa Milan 2001