In the heart of Turin, an area of 3500 square meters will be razed to make room for a Green Architecture project with a fascinating vision: the insertion of the house within a micro-ecosystem in which nature acts as a filter between the metropolitan and domestic environments.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him"A project that finds inspiration from nature, from the park overlooking the Po, fromecosystem who governs the woods and meadows ". This is how Arch. Luciano Pia, one of the two creators of the “green” building which in about two years will come to life in the heart of Turin.
We are a stone's throw from the bed of the Po, near the large Valentino city park. A labyrinth of small streets and crossroads, in the middle of which, in a few months, a tangle of trees and glass, walls and branches, leaves and terraces will emerge. An area of 3500 square meters, which until a few years ago housed offices, will be razed to the ground to make room for a project with futuristic features and an extremely modern language. Potentially aligned between the ranks of what is defined Green Architecture the project reveals a fascinating vision: the insertion of the house within a micro-ecosystem in which nature acts as a filter between the metropolitan environment and the domestic one. A role, that of greenery, is therefore not an accessory, but a necessary one.
We went to have a close look at the floor plans and to have the idea explained to us. Without hiding, among other things, the need to rationalize that feeling of amazement and wonder that inevitably triggers when you hear even talk of "tree houses". The pages of the Baron Rampante come to mind where the protagonist, in conflict with the world, decides to stay up there, among the thick foliage of a large shrub ...
However, we understand that there is nothing fantastic about this project. On the contrary, there is the concrete aspiration to give life to a new housing model which could make possible the desire of many to be able to live surrounded by greenery, even in the city.
25 green it will be a six-story condominium which provides for the presence of 50 trees in the internal courtyard and another 150 scattered around the building, wedged between a terrace and another or planted inside large pots of 3.5 m in diameter: 30 different species will coexist within the same area, shrubs ranging from 2 to 20 meters in height will be selected by agronomists and carefully planted. Two ponds. A steel scaffolding on the outside that simulates the shape of plants and vines. A boundary wall made in cut-ten which reproduces the surface of the rock. Few pillars (53 in all) made of steel modeled on the porosity of the wood.
Furthermore, like Arch. Pia points out "the apartments will not be stacked one on top of the other but they will be real boxes, so as to be able to offer everyone the feeling of living independently ". The choices regarding the terraces: large, separate, built on floors where two wooden and two glass slats alternate so as to allow light to filter through even on the lower terraces. The walls will be made of wood and to ensure better thermal insulation they will be strengthened by an external coat.
Eco-logical but also eco-sustainable. The energy autonomy of the building will be partly guaranteed by the exploitation of thegeothermal energy. “The proximity to the river in fact allows the exploitation of aquifers below the area. Here it will be located an electric heat pump generator which will allow the transfer of sanitary water and water for heating in the winter and fresh air for cooling the rooms in the summer. The presence of one is also foreseen cistern capable of collecting rainwater to be reused for irrigation of the garden and of green roofs. "
On June 4th, the e sales offices were officially opened 63 are the apartments made available. The project obviously already divides purists and futurists. Only in a few months, however, we will begin to see the first shoots.
Pamela Pelatelli
