The new Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Prato, near Florence, successfully lives up to the specifications laid down in the 2006 competition - won by local practice MDU Architetti - namely to modernize an existing urban landmark with an innovative yet conservative programme, and to design a new complex whose public function would be immediately apparent.
The existing 1950s industrial-style building occupies an entire plot in a now consolidated urban district just outside the old town still largely surrounded by its 14th century city walls. The dense industrial and residential mix of this inner periphery speaks of Prato’s history as a major textile hub during the last century but now undergoing major change with the closing of several plants.
The drive to restore and renovate rather than demolish and re-build is a welcome sign of cultural maturity. Accordingly, the winning architectural project acknowledges energy-saving strategies as well as the key features of the existing building: its architectural value and importance as an urban landmark on a strategically placed trapeze-shaped corner plot; the essential regularity of volume and façades, emphasized by regular lines of strip windows; and the potential of the inner court, a hugely useful space defined by the volumes bordering the streets, provided it were cleared of the numerous constructions that had gradually cluttered it up. In addition, the industrial structure of the tall two-storey building was recognized as providing large vertical and horizontal spaces in which to define new work, meeting and socialization areas and so turn the spatial features of the former volume into comfortable environments suitable for modern-day requirements.
MDU’s strategy has been to highlight the shape of the existing structure and free up the inner court of all spurious buildings. The surrounding external landscaped areas are now an integral part of the whole project and include parking...
Digital
Subscription
Material Assemblages and Literal Embodiments: an Environmental Perspective of the Building Envelope
Alejandro Zaera-Polo
While the façade is one of the most theorized architectural elements, the idea of the façade has been in question since at least the end of the ni...Hamburg Mapping: A Waterside Metropolis Looking Nostalgically to the Future
Hamburg is the eighth city we have surveyed in the CityPlan series. After places like Dublin, Milan, New York, Guadalajara, Istanbul, Cairo and London...Hamburg. Living on the Water
In 2013 Hamburg completed the transformation of the island of Elbinsel to host the 2013 Hamburg International Building Exhibition, IBA, and the Intern...