Ex Furnace di Riccione Recovery | Italy | 2014

[Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto]

The project concerns the recovery of the Ex-Furnace Riccione (sqm. 40,000), an industrial complex for the production of bricks, built in 1908 and decommissioned in 1970. The old destinations give way to the new one, taking advantage of the spatial possibilities of the old buildings, which maintain their forms, the historical memory of the place: in the buildings a Middle School of 18 classes, a 650-seat multi-purpose theater (not yet built) and a building offices, will be located. The project has the aim to minimize the environmental impact and so was privileged the substitution of existing buildings with new construction of high energy efficiency, without the occupation of additional surfaces.

The purpose of design is to create simple and easily recognizable architectural volumes, standardizing forms, materials and colors, reinterpreting the historical aspects of preexisting archaeological sites in the way of the contemporary; following a process of “addition” never concluded, the project aspires to a certain continuity with history, not so much in stylistic terms, as for the compositional syntax, allowing the transformation of the use, without they lose their identity. We wanted to pursue, finally, the policy of energy savingresearching easily materials found in “km 0”. The middle school consists of a body with a plan and another, connected with this, with two floors above ground. The project is generally characterized by one side to the restoration and enhancement of the existing brick masonry elements, on the other to differentiate the new from the existing one retaining a consistent overall composition of the intervention.

Externally along the perimeter an insulating red brick color coat glass wool flowing to the pillars, while the infill of the walls is entrusted to brick blocks with the cavities filled with insulating material. Inside a layer of plaster serves as a finish. The coverage will be given to the type of metal trusses (Polonceau) and a system with a double planking, insulating layer, and a mantle of cover tile type flat tile side by side, above the gym a terrace is enclosed by the system brise soleil creating uniformity with the school building. The exterior finish of the walls will be a system of brise soleil (‘brick brise soleil’ using a traditional material in an innovative form) terracotta-colored dry straw-mounted: these ensure the duotone request (with red insulation panels below), and the protection of the back coat from sunlight direct. Also the facade foster microventilation that will contribute to the insulation wall. The whole system of heating/air conditioning/production hot water is entrusted to the massive use of electrical heat pumps fed by a photovoltaic system integrated into the building envelope, supported by radiant floor heating.

Product Description. The most widely material used in the realization is the brick. It was chosen as strongly evocative of the old furnace and its color; also the brick, as a material, was already present in the furnace, and also was manufactured in that place; the use of brick not as masonry material but as brise soleil testifies to its versatility, its contemporary use and therefore its beauty, the daughter of a past that saw him star and a future that will be able to witness it due to his skills. Text description by the architects.