In less than three months, construction will begin on Nabito Architects’ Domus Aquae.  The project is a thermal complex club that is situated next to the Roman Colosseum.  The project will use an existing structure and include a restaurant, swimming area and thermal baths.   The form was derived after studying and analyzing maps, plans and drawings of the Old Roman Termae.   Once completed, the project will be a nice compliment to those visiting the Colosseum.

More images and diagrams after the break.   read more »

We recently published the project Railway Footbridge at Roche-sur-Yon, now our friends from HDA_Paris share with us the Turin Footbridge, that was constructed for the 2006 Winter Olympics.

About the competition, we know that the city of Turin hosted the 2006 winter Olympic games and had embarked on an extensive programme of construction of various venues and infrastructure for the games. The city took advantage of the infrastructure programme to incite urban renewal in the southern part of the city that has been affected by the economic downturn in the car industry. The Olympic village, situated in the disused Mercati Generali in the Lingotto district adjacent to the main railway lines entering the city from the south, is part of this new infrastructure and will contain housing and a logistics centre.

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© Marco Covi. Trieste

Architects: Waltritsch a+u
Location: Gorizia, Italy
Project Architect: Dimitri Waltritsch
Main Contractor: Pasalic, Monfalcone
Project Area: 1,800 sqm
Project Year: 2005-2009
Construction Year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Marco Covi. Trieste

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Architect: Studio Pietropoli
Location: Bassano del Grappa, Italy
Architects in charge: Guido&Martino Pietropoli
Collaborators: Alberto Franchini
Client: Private
Constructed Area: 280 sqm
Project years: 2001-2009
Photographs: Martino Pietropoli

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A3+ Architects recently finished an urban renovation project in Marsala, Italy for an international competition.  The project is situated in Porta Nuova, where the historical center of the city is connected to the sea by an urban road and an archeological park.

More images and more about the project after the break. read more »

Architects: Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands
Location: Milan, Italy
Food and restaurant consultant: Ford McDonald Consultancy
Lighting consultant: Equation Lighting Design
Cost consultant: Davis Langdon
Mechanical engineer: BRE Enginnering s.r.l.
Electrical engineer: CS Progetti
Main contractor: Impresa Minotti s.r.l.
Feature ceiling sub-contractor: Camagni Arredamenti s.r.l.
Project Area: 1,900 sqm
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands

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On october 9, Iñaki Abalos and Renata Sentkiewicz will give the lecture ‘Landform Buildings’ at Roma Tre Universitá (Aula Urbano VIII, Via della Madonna dei Monti 40, Rome). The lecture will take place at 4:30pm.

After the lecture, an exhibition of Abalos+Sentkiewicz arquitectos will be opened including projects as Taipei Perfoming Art Center, Seville’s Caixaforum, Valdebebas Park, Tour Port de La Chapelle, Elche viewpoint and Orange County Museum of Art amog others.

The exhibition will take place at the same Campus.

Architect: monovolume architecture + design
Location: Kurtatsch, Italy
Project manager: Pedó Pobitzer
Project team: Christian Gold, Barbara Waldboth, Amgelika Mair
Structural Engineering: Baucon Bozen (Ing. Neulichedl Simon)
Client: Rothoblaas limited Company
Building area: 3,700 sqm
Budget: 5,5 Mil. Euro
Project year: 2005
Photographs: Oskar Da Riz

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Resting on the outskirts of Naples, Renzo Piano latest Volcano Buono is a mixed use center  that aims to become integrated into the landscape, rather than just occupying it.  The central piazza of the Volcano includes a 150 meter-wide space that holds an outdoor theater and market, while a series of concentric rings form the center’s commercial areas.  Piano explained that the Volcano  is “a contemporary take on a Greek marketplace, a void as a place for events, meetings, dialogue and the gathering of people”.

More about the Volcano and more images after the break. read more »

Architect: monovolume architecture + design
Location: Bolzano, Italy
Project team: Christian Gold, Barbara Waldboth, Thomas Garasi
Structural Engineering: Baucon Bozen (Ing. Neulichedl Simon)
Program: Commercial building
Building area: 1,250 sqm
Budget: 2,5 Mil. Euro
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Oskar Da Riz

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Architects: Massimiliano & Doriana Fuksas
Location: Pescara, Italy
Client: De Cecco Spa
Structure: Studio Ing. Toniolo, Sirmione (BS)
Total area: 6,300 sqm
Budget: 20M Euro
Project Year: 2001-2009
Photographs: Moreno Maggi

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Architects: monovolume architecture + design
Location: Dörfl, Italy
Project team: Juri Pobitzer & Patrik Pedó
Collaborators: Rita Rabensteiner, Simon Constantini, Cecile Dobler, Benjamin Gaensbacher
Client: Hydroelectric power station consortium limited company
Project year: 2008-2009
Photographer: Simon Constantini & Marion Gelmini

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© Herzog & de Meuron

The conceptual master plan for the Milan World Exposition 2015 resulted from the teamwork of five architects: Jacques Herzog, Mark Rylander, Ricky Burdett, Stefano Boeri, and William McDonough.  Working with the theme “feeding the planet, energy for life”, the exposition will be a planetary botanical garden that will “feed Milan literally, spiritually and intellectually.”  The architects created the framework for the exposition and organized an orthogonal bridge that contains an agrofood park and is surrounded by water ways.

More about the new concept after the break. read more »

Architects: Stefano Boeri Architetti (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, Giovanni La Varra)
Location: Seregno, Italy
Client: Muinicipality of Seregno
Constructed Area: 2,700 sqm
Budget: 2,600,000 euro
Project Year: 2003-2009
Diagrams: Salottobuono
Photographs: Paolo Rosselli

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© Paolo Rosselli

Italian based Stefano Boeri Architetti shared with us their latest project: The requalification and recovery of the ex Military Arsenal on the island of La Maddalena, Italy. This project includes a hotel, a congress centre, a conference building, two large exhibition and commercial spaces and a quay for 700 boats.

© Paolo Rosselli

It was conceived as the central point of the G8 summit at Maddalena, event that was recently moved to the earthquaked zone of L’Aquila, and it was developed in only 18 months, thanks to the work of 1600 construction workers, a dozen developers and a large group of professionals and technicians, fulfilling a vision that confirms “the level of distinction of contemporary Italian Architecture”.

The end result is impressive: over 155.000 m2, providing a series of port, receptive, formative and convention infrastructure that will transform the ex Arsenale at Maddalena into one of the principle nautical poles of the eastern Mediterranean. The mixed use project incorporates advanced systems to use solar power and seawater for heating and cooling, reflecting the strong relation of the project with the sea.

Architects description and more photos by  Paolo Rosselli  after the break.
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The ninth edition of BEYOND MEDIA, international festival for architecture and media, will open at the Stazione Leopolda in Florence, Italy. A rich program of videos, exhibitions, and a symposium -in which the protagonist of the international debate will participate- will offer to the public, until July 17, a plurality of overviews on architecture and on its ever more intense relations with the media.

More images after the break.

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Ravello, off South Italy’s coast, is said to be one of the most beautiful spots on earth. And Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer’s all-white curvaceous auditorium is set amongst its luxuriant rocky hillsides and against the backdrop of the refined Amalfi coastal town’s trademark awe-inspiring brilliant blue sea and endless open skies.

Completion is due in September, ready to showcase the new auditorium’s unique feature: its over-hanging canopied roof (or solaio a sbalzo in Italian). More plainly put, this means that while the amenities are set off the entrance piazza or in the floors below, a section of the 1,500m2 canopy, which contains the actual auditorium space, literally and strikingly, hangs in the air supported by nothing.

Seen at Wallpaper. More images after the break (we searched all over the web for more images, if you can find some, please post the links!) read more »

The Gruppo Giovani Architetti Firenze (Young Architect Group of Florence) has created three design strategies to provoke critical reflection about architectural establishments in Italy. Studying three important sites, the Galleria degli Uffizi, the National Library of Florence, and the Dome of the Cathedral, the GGAF has created innovative ways to highlight and restore these landmarks’ importance in the city.

More information and images after the break. read more »

Under the direction of architect Dario Cottone, the young Italian firm recently won an international competition in the historical center of Caltanissetta, Sicily.  Cottone’s project focuses on a red ribbon that aims to link the older historic parts of the 16,000 square meter site with the emerging contemporary areas.

Further project description and more images after the break.

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Architect: Jacopo Mascheroni / JM Architecture
Location: Milan, Italy
Collaborator: Pietro Borzini
General Contractor: Molteni Enrico & C., Giussano, MI
Steel & Glass: Fratelli Ronchetti, Cantù, CO
Millwork: Fumagalli-Annoni, Mariano C.se, CO
Corian: Andreoli SNC, Cesano Maderno, MI
Home Automation: Domus Project, Carugo, CO
Project year: 2005-2008
Photographs: Jacopo Mascheroni

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