More Than a Museum, More Than a Factory

Più di un museo, più di una fabbrica

70 N PIRANESI 34/14

Architecture N Italy N 2013

Labics: Maria Claudia Clemente, Francesco Isidori

MAST Bologna – Manifattura di Arte, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia, Bologna

MAST Bologna – Manufacture of Arts, Experimentation and Technology, Bologna

Luka Skansi Christian Richters

L’edificio polifunzionale mast di Bologna rappresenta un raro esempio, nell’Italia di oggi, di incontro tra mondo imprenditoriale e cultura architettonica.The mast Bologna multipurpose centre is one of the rare examples in present-day Italy where entrepreneurship and architectural culture meet. 76

Labics N 71

The recently completed mast building (the acro-nym stands for Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia di Bologna –

the Bologna Manufacture of Arts, Experimentation and Technology) is one of those projects that architects dream of completing at least once in their professional career. The project was commissioned by an illustrious client – a blooming company (g. d. – Coesia Group) and a world leader in packaging technologies, directed by an enlightened female entrepreneur known for her charity and cultural involvement. Isabella Seragnoli is a philanthropic entrepreneur who has supported various hospital projects, but she is also an art collector with a particular interest in industrial pho-tography documenting labour, indu-stry and industry-related spaces. She has collected an impressive number of works, which provide a genuine overview of the history of 20th cen-tury photography, ranging from the Russian and American avant-gardes of the 1920s to masterpieces by Andreas Gursky and David Goldblatt. In line

with the entrepreneur’s passion for art, mast Bologna has also been concei-ved as an exhibition centre where art collections owned by the company, as well as modern art and photography exhibitions, can be displayed.

The building was designed with the intention of opening the factory towards the city. The mast Bologna bu-ilding is the company’s public showro-om, which is why some of its parts have been created to host presentations of the technologies in which g. d. excels. At the same time, the building offers new collective spaces for company em-ployees and managers, such as areas for professional education and training, a company restaurant and cafeteria, re-creational facilities and a nursery. The diversity of functions dictates versatile solutions with specific spatial and di-mensional traits, as well as with diffe-rent relations with the exterior space.

Such a project stimulates the mind of an architect. It not only gives the ar-chitect the honour of being commis-sioned by a highly respected client and requires the designing of exhibition areas where different forms of art in the art collection can be put on display,

while also expressing the desire to open the factory to the city; the project provides yet another professional sti-mulus: creating a building that can house such heterogeneous functions, creating a coherent physical space with a difficult, albeit not new, architectural type – a multipurpose building brin-ging together culture, exposition, re-creation, training and education (for employees, engineers and children). The architects were given a task that was not taken for granted and was per-ceived as most appealing: to introduce order and create a shape for the inhe-rent complexity of the building, whi-le conferring an image suitable to the client and responding to the needs of different working spaces.

In a time of exacerbating crisis experienced by Italian architecture, such a happy marriage between entre-preneurship and design is rather an exception to the rule. The crisis has not only resulted from the current econo-mic crisis, it is also related to admini-strative and bureaucratic difficulties associated with tenders and construc-tion sites, and linked to entrenched corruption in the building sector, as

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1 schema edificio percorso2 Piano secondo3 Piano primo4 Prospetto sud ovest5 sezioni6 Piano terra

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well as to the obsolete organisation of architectural studies and a profound crisis that has crushed potential clients (in both the private and public sec-tors). This chronic deadlock has led to a scarcity of demand for quality archi-tecture. Against such a background, mast Bologna can be seen as an alien building, catapulted from a more advanced European country to the arid outskirts of an Italian city.

The building’s complex image, as well as the quality of its production and completion, are a rarity in the current economic and professional situation. And yet, mast is not at all decontextua-lised from Italian industrial culture. Those who can rise above observation of phenomena in the present moment will be able to see that the spirit that ga-ve birth to this project matches the en-trepreneurial spirit permeating Italian industry in the 1950s and 1960s, with Olivetti as the unbeatable role model of investment in quality working spaces and life inside and outside their factory. True, mast Bologna does not have the same proportions and size of Olivetti, but it revives, albeit on a smaller scale, the Italian vision of undertakings that value a multitude of professions and in-dividuals working together, a vision that does not see a place of work merely as a production facility, and a vision that has, sadly, disappeared over the past decades.

The centre has been designed by emerging architects from the Rome-based Labics Studio (Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori), who were awarded the commission in a clo-sed tender to which seven other teams

were invited. The Labics architects describe mast as a city in a building. Although slightly out of place, their me-taphor is very efficient, as it shows how the architects thought of solving the internal organisation of the functional demands imposed on the building by the client. Their vision is that of a part of a city where various places dedica-ted to different functions are part of the architectural flow, with spaces that are either in relation with each other or, oc-casionally, isolated from each other. The Labics Studio conceived their design as a combination of two routes. The first follows the path employees take every day, while the second is used by a more general public on special occasions. The routes are arranged at different levels of the building. There are places where the routes meet and intersect, sometimes visually and sometimes physically.

The distinction between public and company use is quite visible from the outside as well. A wide ramp from the road to the entrance leads to the first le-vel of the building – the ground floor for public use. From here, one can choose to walk to an auditorium, a training centre or exhibition galleries. These functions are contained in outward projections characterising the street-facing volume. The company route is below the public floor and visually directs its users to-wards open spaces, such as a large cante-en overlooking an impressive sculpture by Mark di Suvero and a fountain pool from which pillars supporting the audi-torium structure rise.

While the back of the building facing the production facilities and

managerial headquarters is volumetri-cally flat, the front of the building facing the city articulates space differently, bre-athing soul into the anonymous quar-ter in the western outskirts of the city of Bologna, constructed during the urban sprawl after the Second World War. The main ramp allowing the general pu-blic access to the building also promi-ses a future physical connection with the adjacent Reno River Park. For the time being, this connection still has to be seen with the mind’s eye, as the area between the river and mast still needs to undergo certain urban development measures. The building situated on the outskirts of the city of Bologna might seem out of proportions, but this effect is mitigated by a serious of volume-tric and material tricks of the trade. The ramp conceals the ground floor, which otherwise would have been visible from the street, thus visually diminishing the impact the volumes would have ma-de. The façade coating was chosen to obtain the same effect. Serigraph-glass panel cladding covers the opaque walls with aluminium lamellae, softening the building and neutralising its tectonics.

The small body of the nursery next to mast is the only variation to the ge-neral make-up of the façade. The low boxy structure facing a pre-existing school is covered by a series of colour clay rods inserted in steel poles for-ming a rhythmic façade preventing a view of the children-dedicated area to the outside world. The nursery, on the other hand, illuminated, inter alia, with zenithal light, offers a view of the adjacent green area.

MAST Bologna – Manifattura di Arte, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia, Bologna, ItaliaMAST Bologna – Manufacture of Arts, Experimentation and Technology, Bologna, ItalyProgettisti Design

Labics (Maria Claudia Clemente, Francesco Isidori) Cliente Client

Coesia GroupTeam del concorso Competition Team

Hélène Bouchain, Leonardo Consolazione, Andrea Ottaviani, Giorgio Pasqualinisviluppo del progetto Design Development

Chiara Capriulo (Project Architect),Carolina Bajetti, Leonardo Consolazione, Francesca Delicato, Giuditta Milano, Andrea Ottaviani, Luigi Panetta, Dominique Réthans, Maria Adele Savioli, Elisa VillaniProgramma Programme

Asilo nido, mensa, centro espositivo, spazio per esposizioni, accademia, auditorium, a caffetteria, parking / Nursery, canteen, exposition centre, exposition gallery, training centre, auditorium, cafeteria, parking Cronologia progetto Project Chronology

2006–2013 Area totale Total Area

25 000 m²superficie netta di pavimento Net floor area

7 200 m²Costare Cost

25.000.000 €Modelli Model

Susan Berardo, Gaia Maria LombardoProgettazione strutturale structural Consultant

Proges Engineering Andrea ImbrendaProgettazione meccanica e ingegneria elettrica Mechanical and Electrical Consultant

Hilson MoranIlluminazion lighting

Baldieri S. r. l.Acustica Acoustics

Higini ArauPaesaggio landscape Design

Paolo Pejrone

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Labics N 75

The recently completed mast building (the acronym stands for Manifattura di Arti, Speri-mentazione e Tecnologia di Bologna – the Bologna Manu-

facture of Arts, Experimentation and Technology) is one of those projects that architects dream of completing at least once in their professional career. The project was commissioned by an il-lustrious client – a blooming company (g. d. – Coesia Group) and a world lead-er in packaging technologies, directed by an enlightened female entrepreneur known for her charity and cultural in-volvement. Isabella Seragnoli is a phil-anthropic entrepreneur who has sup-ported various hospital projects, but she is also an art collector with a particular interest in industrial photography docu-menting labour, industry and industry-related spaces. She has collected an im-pressive number of works, which pro-vide a genuine overview of the history of 20th century photography, ranging from the Russian and American avant-gardes of the 1920s to masterpieces by Andreas Gursky and David Goldblatt. In line with the entrepreneur’s passion for art, mast Bologna has also been con-ceived as an exhibition centre where art collections owned by the company, as well as modern art and photography ex-hibitions, can be displayed.

The building was designed with the intention of opening the factory towards the city. The mast Bologna building is the company’s public show-room, which is why some of its parts have been created to host presenta-tions of the technologies in which G. D. excels. At the same time, the build-ing offers new collective spaces for company employees and managers, such as areas for professional educa-tion and training, a company restau-rant and cafeteria, recreational facili-ties and a nursery. The diversity of functions dictates versatile solutions with specific spatial and dimensional

traits, as well as with different relations with the exterior space.

Such a project stimulates the mind of an architect. It not only gives the architect the honour of being com-missioned by a highly respected client and requires the designing of exhibi-tion areas where different forms of art in the art collection can be put on dis-play, while also expressing the desire to open the factory to the city; the pro-ject provides yet another professional stimulus: creating a building that can house such heterogeneous functions, creating a coherent physical space with a difficult, albeit not new, architectural type – a multipurpose building bring-ing together culture, exposition, rec-reation, training and education (for employees, engineers and children). The architects were given a task that was not taken for granted and was per-ceived as most appealing: to introduce order and create a shape for the inher-ent complexity of the building, while conferring an image suitable to the client and responding to the needs of different working spaces.

In a time of exacerbating crisis experienced by Italian architecture, such a happy marriage between en-trepreneurship and design is rath-er an exception to the rule. The crisis has not only resulted from the cur-rent economic crisis, it is also relat-ed to administrative and bureaucrat-ic difficulties associated with tenders and construction sites, and linked to entrenched corruption in the build-ing sector, as well as to the obsolete organisation of architectural studies and a profound crisis that has crushed potential clients (in both the private and public sectors). This chronic dead-lock has led to a scarcity of demand for quality architecture. Against such a background, mast Bologna can be seen as an alien building, catapulted from a more advanced European country to the arid outskirts of an Italian city.

The building’s complex image, as well as the quality of its produc-tion and completion, are a rarity in the current economic and profession-al situation. And yet, mast is not at all decontextualised from Italian indus-trial culture. Those who can rise above observation of phenomena in the present moment will be able to see that the spirit that gave birth to this project matches the entrepreneurial spirit permeating Italian industry in the 1950s and 1960s, with Olivetti as the unbeatable role model of invest-ment in quality working spaces and life inside and outside their factory. True, mast Bologna does not have the same proportions and size of Olivetti, but it revives, albeit on a smaller scale, the Italian vision of undertakings that value a multitude of professions and individuals working together, a vi-sion that does not see a place of work merely as a production facility, and a vision that has, sadly, disappeared over the past decades.

The centre has been designed by emerging architects from the Rome-based Labics Studio (Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori), who were awarded the commission in a closed tender to which seven other teams were invited. The Labics archi-tects describe mast as a city in a build-ing. Although slightly out of place, their metaphor is very efficient, as it shows how the architects thought of solving the internal organisation of the functional demands imposed on the building by the client. Their vision is that of a part of a city where various places dedicated to different functions are part of the architectural flow, with spaces that are either in relation with each other or, occasionally, isolated from each other. The Labics Studio conceived their design as a combina-tion of two routes. The first follows the path employees take every day, while the second is used by a more

76 N PIRANESI 34/14

general public on special occasions. The routes are arranged at different levels of the building. There are places where the routes meet and intersect, sometimes vis-ually and sometimes physically.

The distinction between public and company use is quite visible from the outside as well. A wide ramp from the road to the entrance leads to the first lev-el of the building – the ground floor for public use. From here, one can choose to walk to an auditorium, a training centre or exhibition galleries. These functions are contained in outward projections characterising the street-facing volume. The company route is below the public floor and visually directs its users towards open spaces, such as a large canteen overlooking an impressive sculpture by Mark di Suvero and a fountain pool from which pillars supporting the auditorium structure rise.

While the back of the building fac-ing the production facilities and mana-gerial headquarters is volumetrically flat, the front of the building facing the city articulates space differently, breathing soul into the anonymous quarter in the western outskirts of the city of Bologna, constructed during the urban sprawl after the Second World War. The main ramp allowing the general public access to the building also promises a future physical connection with the adjacent Reno River Park. For the time being, this connection still has to be seen with the mind’s eye, as the area between the river and mast still needs to undergo certain urban develop-ment measures. The building situated on the outskirts of the city of Bologna might seem out of proportions, but this effect is mitigated by a serious of volumetric and material tricks of the trade. The ramp conceals the ground floor, which other-wise would have been visible from the street, thus visually diminishing the im-pact the volumes would have made. The façade coating was chosen to obtain the same effect. Serigraph-glass panel clad-ding covers the opaque walls with alu-minium lamellae, softening the building and neutralising its tectonics.

The small body of the nursery next to mast is the only variation to the gen-eral make-up of the façade. The low boxy structure facing a pre-existing school is covered by a series of colour clay rods in-serted in steel poles forming a rhythmic façade preventing a view of the children-dedicated area to the outside world. The nursery, on the other hand, illuminated, inter alia, with zenithal light, offers a view of the adjacent green area.

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