[ AKA Architetti ] Digital Origami

Rome architects AKA Architetti have won a competition to design a television and learning centre in Italy with this design, entitled Digital Origami.

The design will be built in the former Italcitrus packaging plant in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

The complex will comprise television and audio-visual productionfacilities, as well as exhibition spaces for temporary installationsand film festivals.

The project involves restoring four of the six existing buildings,demolishing the other two and construction a new, semicircular buildingwith a piazza at its centre.

The new structure will be covered with a mesh, illuminated at night to project messages to the surroundings.

The ground floor will house studios, laboratories, workshops,administrative offices and exhibition spaces, while the first floorwill include a cafe, bookshop, offices and classrooms, open to thepublic.

Here’s some more information from AKA Architetti:

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International competition – First Prize

Digital Origami

The intervention represents a distinct urban and landscape sign. Notonly the broadcasting antenna and the new building but also the entirecomplex as well as the surrounding terrain were sculptured and wereintended to be a piece of land art.

During the night the centre is engulfed by an illuminated net thatemerges from the terrain spreading and arriving to the top of thebroadcasting antenna/sculpture, visible from afar. The centre it selfbecomes an instrument of communication, an interactive device and notonly a passive container. The Net that enwraps the centre has anotherfunction as a bio climate skin. It has bi phase ecologic system;passive, hot/cold protection, and active, with the insertion onphotovoltaic panels.

The distribution plan for the new complex is divided in 2 levels, onthe ground level are located the more operative spaces, scenographicand tailoring workshops, laboratories, studios, administration officesand in the corresponding new building area an exhibition gallery. Onthe level above are the public designated areas such as the cafeteria,bookshop, offices and teaching classes. On the same level a suspendedvisiting path is programmed in order to allow the visitors to view thevarious activities without interfering.

On the non built areas is planned an equipped public park thatparticipate in the centre activities, the terrain is sculptured in afractured way that allows to collocate the parking areas and thetechnical rooms underneath it.

The competition was announced on April 2008 with the submissiondeadline on September 2008, the jury decision was publicly announced onMarch 2009. The project contract is foreseen to be held near the end of2009. The construction timeline stands on 18 months.

“Ce.Te.S” International Competition For An Experimental TelevisionCultural/Didactic Center In The Former Italcitrus Packaging Plant InReggio Calabria, Italy.

Organizers: Reggio Calabria local authority.

Development cost: 6.650.000 €

Area: 10.200 sq m

AKA ( AKA - Caccavale, Casadei, Pineschi Associated Architects)

Design team: Federica Caccavale, Alessandro Casadei, Paolo Pineschi, Nadav Engel

from  dezeen