The architectural and technological quality combined with the social relevance of the projects presented and curated by Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluffo made 5+1AA studio the winner of the Grand Prix Casalgrande Padana 2013-2015 in the category Facade coverings and exterior floorings, in particular for the project Les Docks of Marseille.
The architects made researches and experimentations starting from the established relationship between quantity and quality of the industrialized ceramics production; they introduced elements of creativity and innovation in terms of morphology and installation systems, able to activate a process that significantly elevates project and product objectives.
Specifically, the jury of the competition emphasized the refined intervention of restoration and requalification of the Docks, the important warehouse complex in the famous French city, representing a border territory between architectural project and art installation, where the porcelain stoneware used, Unicolore by Casalgrande Padana *, is the unique protagonist. Two different application methods were used: by fragmentation and smart reassembly of the laying material in a precise application matrix; by the overlapping of designed ceramic elements, fixed on a special metal substructure.
As a composition of "technological symbiosis", the cladding grows on the facades of the internal courts without destroying them, generating an extraordinary figurative impact and maintaining unchanged the originality of the existing structure.
The modification of the structure, a meeting place between land and city, has also involved the basement intervention, to create an open system developed around penetrations, transparencies and connections, extended to the sea. From these and other details, including the attention to the public within the interiors, it is possible to recognize the signature of the architects, who call themselves “attentive to perceptions and visual openings, to routes and elements”. Light and wind then become structural protagonists of the building, creating an unprecedented allure.
Credits:
*Materials used in the project:
- Blu, Unicolore
- Blu Forte, Unicolore
- Bianco Assoluto, Unicolore
- Verde, Unicolore
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