GRAIN WAREHOUSE REHABILITATION, OSTIANO, ITALY.
DESIGN TEAM:
Calvi Rollino, Cereda, Panarese Architetti
> Adaptive reuse, biophilia, environmental architecture, genius loci, place as system, regenerative design
This project in Ostiano - a small country town in the naturalistic valley of the Parco Oglio Sud of Northern Italy - regards the adaptive reuse of a group of buildings composing the ex-Consorzio Agrario, a grain warehouse now abandoned and not subject to heritage protection laws regardless of its anthropological value. The rehabilitation is part of a broader program to requalify some districts of the country town that will house a new company and its different divisions operating in the green economy sector. We have set a higher level of environmental awareness for that program: the shift from a sustainable to a regenerative approach. We believe the scope of design is not merely to be ‘sustainable’ in the sense of minimizing or mitigating the impact of human activities on the natural environment, with respect to climate change and ecosystem degradation; the real goal of a project should be that of seeking for an overall benign integration of human and natural systems so that they can co-evolve with mutual benefit, reversing and improving current environmental conditions.
The project for this district, located in a residential area close to the downtown, regards the new company’s administrative and representative headquarters, research and development laboratories, educational and exhibition rooms, and areas open to the public for dining and recreational purposes. The project integrates environmental, economic and sociocultural dynamics that enhance the regenerative power of the place. We made a specific study of the territory: starting from that, the architectural identity of the massive volumes of the old warehouses for the storage of grain has been enforced, removing the superficial plaster coating and bringing the material essence of brick walls to new life. The recovery and use of bricks for the walls and the ground of the entire compound has multiple reasons: cultural, historical, logistic, aesthetic and environmental reasons. Clay is the main natural component of the soil in these territories: its use for artisanal technologies and bricks characterized the activities of people since the first human settlements in the region, back to the Neolithic Era, and after that, in the Roman period. The choice also regarded broader economic and environmental considerations: by considering the entire lifecycle of a building, a construction material such as bricks, which is naturally abundant, locally sourced, durable, with stable performance and cost-effective in addition to its potential for future reuse or recycling, meets several regulatory requirements of recent Italian environmental criteria (CAM – Criteri Ambientali Minimi).