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Central Statistics office HQ, Rome, Italy
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Mario Cucinella’s forays into sustainable architecture continue with a competition winning scheme for a major government building in Rome: the 60 000 sqm HQ of Italy’s Central Statistics Office on a government campus on the edge of the city. Greening and civilising a large building devoted to the dour functions of administrating and archiving statistics could be viewed as a significant challenge. Yet Cucinella brings rigour and romance to the state-sponsored programme. The rigour pertinently, to its exacting sustainable credentials (estimates suggest it will reduce carbon emissions by two thirds compared with a conventional office). The romance comes from an interior sculpted into caverns and grottoes to resemble a more outré film set. This instant geology comes replete with water, greenery and theatrically diffused light, all essential aspects of the building’s environmental control strategy. Though the external facade appears homogeneous, it does vary in its materiality and degree of transparency depending on orientation. The internal sequence of landscaped ‘cavens’ at the core of the building forms a dramatic yet welcoming public realm for both visitors and workers. Tall atria perforate the deep plan, bringing light and air to the office spaces which are arranged in narrow strips around the internal courtyards. Even though the office landscape is organised around the familiar open-plan model, no work station is far from a window. Passive environmental control strategies are resourcefully exploited (thermal mass, natural ventilation and light) augmented by more active measures such as the extensive array of photovoltaic panels on the roof garden and the use of geothermal power. Yet whether such green swagger translates into the promised energy and emission savings will clearly depend on how the building is used and monitored.
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| Architect |
Cucinella Mario |
| Country |
Italy |
| Region |
Roma e dintorni |
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