Office Complex / zaa zanonarchitettiassociati

Architects: zaa zanonarchitettiassociati
Location: 31056 Roncade, Province of Treviso, Italy
Lead Architects: Mariano Zanon, Alessio Bolgan, Bruno Ferretti
Area: 2.619 m2
Project Year: 2016
Photographs: Marco Zanta

Engineering: RS ingegneria, Toso Riccio Engineering, Fiel Fornasier Impianti
Contractor: Setten Genesio

Text description provided by the architects. The office complex is located in a area once home to a farm, active since the 70s and ceased in the early 2000s, which insisted on a property of about 50.000 m², divided into 10 artifacts for a total volume of about 15.000 m³.

The project area is located in an interesting position both for landscape and infrastructure connections, thanks to its position within the Regional Park of River Sile and the proximity to the motorway and Venice airport.

The project consists in the redevelopment of an area located along a strong naturalistic route and concernes an abandoned and degraded agricultural area. The operation is made possible by the establishment of an innovative low-impact activity that could become a prototype for future landscape restoration actions, a “zero-volume” intervention, in which the volumetric dimensions of the demolished complex aren’t exceeded by the new constructions.

The program for the recovery of the area has provided for the restoration of the old farmhouse and the inclusion of new volumes: the buildings are positioned to communicate with the surrounding landscape, in line with the rural harmony that surrounds them. Forms and construction techniques of the tradition have been adapted to the most recent technologies, referring to the dimensional relationships between plant and elevation and the typological elements of the historical constructive culture: the office building regains the idea of the enclosed farmyard and the smaller buildings resume the rectangular plan of the minimum rural units; pitched roofs, regular forometry and essential fronts safeguard the peculiarities of traditional systems combined with appropriate solutions for new technological requirements.

The office building is characterized by a “C” shape, with a central courtyard closed on three sides and facing the river and the park: the glazed surfaces of the internal sides leave an open view of the horizon, marked by a dense river vegetation; on the contrary the external sides are completely closed, if not for some perforated wall portions which, recalling the constructive tradition of the country barns, allow to glimpse the surrounding vegetation.

The stretched volume of the restaurant is characterized by a tripartition that matches the façade: the opaque rear part, in continuity with the aim to close the view towards the street, consists of the services; the fully glazed central part hosts the kitchen/counter and the dining room; the terminal part of the external plateau, suspended from the ground and facing the river, accentuates the strong connection with the surrounding landscape. The outdoor area is divided into small gardens that provide the kitchen products, in line with a low-carbon lifestyle.

The vehicular traffic is interdicted in the whole area: once the cars are left in the car parks at the two margins of the parcel, the internal circulation is exclusively pedestrian, in a dimension that recovers the times and uses of the rural countryside.