BOX UNDER THE SIGNS OF TIME.
PORDOI5
We have derived the organizational criteria of the façade from the study of drawings by the Dutch architect Teo van Doesburg. In particular his works on the theme of the diagonal, entitled " Studies for a composition”, which we have interpreted as an expression of the diagonal line in relation to the orthogonal grid.
The diagonal system of proportions creates new standards of visibility between interior and exterior. From the outside the building looks a stronghold parallelepiped with minor cuts to the outside, thin, dark and deep as a cut on the canvas by Lucio Fontana. From inside the openings are bright and transparent, because we matched the cutting height of 30 cm. with the height of the glass plate of the aluminium frame.
The structural pattern of the building is of the utmost importance, to allow a completely free use of the interior space. The frame of the building is made with prefabricated beams and pillars, with a scheme that has enabled clear spans up to 17 meters.
All supplies of construction refer to the " already made " from standard catalogues. Only a few elements have been modified in a minor way, without altering their industrialized nature and their cost.
Particularly functional and effective was also the design of the ceilings, consisting, as the facades, by a series of parallel diagonal cuts able to contain all emissions and entries of the air conditioning and heating, lighting systems, safety systems, that usually spoil the harmony of contemporary spaces.
The interiors of the building are organized and linked together by a particular abstract narration.
Each floor refers in its size and its colours, to the geometry of Dante's Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise), with these analogies: 1 - loading and unloading - Selva Oscura: 2 - cellar tree of the knowledge –Hell: 3 - stores - open space laboratories Purgatory: 4 - event hall - Paradise.
The abstract reference to the poetry of Dante is used to characterize the interiors spaces beyond the quiet solitude of the functions and opacity, and the scope is to experience a sharing of the building, with work experience, unique and, hopefully, memorable.
As in the stories of Bruno Schulz, the great Polish writer, Pordoi 5 also belongs to a path of fantasy, which joins with the weapons of colour and proportions the usual functional reduction of life.
To one facade we assigned a memory function using slabs of black reflective Plexiglas.
This Plexiglas plate technique has also been applied in different indoor and outdoor environments, such as the boundary wall of the building, the greenhouse of the function room (Paradise, in which, according to our vision of the place of salvation, the decorations were created by reusing all scrap pieces left over from other work done on site.
The fragments of Plexiglas indicate that matter and light are all that we have to express our creativity, our memories, and our astonishment of the boundaries of the fantastic. Whether it is things or people, the subject of this project is that matter and reflective diagonal are the only form with the naturalness of the dream.
Attilio Terragni
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