INFRASTRUCTURE / SOPHISTICATED

WORDS

PHOTOGRAPHY

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1-2. The imposing volume of the bioenergy plant is mitigated by the sculptural, multifaceted design of the outer skin. To minimise the perception of the height of the power plant, landscaped dunes were created along the perimeter.

For a hulking bioenergy plant that supplies electricity to 84,000 households, the Powerbarn by Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti treads lightly in terms of visual and environmental impact.

Surrounded by agricultural fields near the city of Russi in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, the eye is drawn to the geometric wooden hull and sculpted metal tower that dominate the landscape.

The furnace building and chimney of the Powerbarn are enveloped in a compelling skin of large triangular shapes woven in a multifaceted pattern, a mutable disguise that offers an-ever changing perception of the building in different conditions.

The dissimulation of this massive structure is inspired by the Razzle Dazzle technique, which was used to camouflage warships during World War I.

“This is not about hiding, but about proposing a different reality to the observer, a more complex and deceptive one that, paradoxically, tends to attract his attention, making him wonder at what he sees,” says architect Giovanni Vaccarini.

“The ambition was to think that an industrial building could be beautiful and a landmark for the area.

“The result was achieved by connecting the building with the surrounding area and by sharing the project’s values.”

Taking cues from the Razzle Dazzle military camouflage technique, the building is enveloped by large triangular surfaces that offer mutable and faceted displays of itself.

Set on the 470,000m² industrial site of the former Eridania sugar factory, the furnace building and smoke line of the biomass plant extends 110m long and 40m high, while the chimney reaches 52m in height.

To dematerialise this imposing volume, the architect studied the Razzle Dazzle technique, which was developed by artist Norman Wilkinson as a type of disruptive camouflage.

British and American warships were painted in contrasting, irregular shapes with dark and light stripes, making them a visually-confounding target.

Before the advent of radar, this radical paint job was used in misleading the enemy as to the vessel’s type, speed and direction.

“[Razzle Dazzle] consists of a series of lines and graphic signs that interrupt and face each other, which confuses the observer’s perception, making it difficult to precisely estimate the distance and size of the object,” explains the architect.

Vaccarini reinterprets the Dazzle camouflage as a hybrid between an artistic technique and local inputs; a transposition

SITE PLAN

Flue system and boiler building 1. chimney +SME 2. Deposit site and storage 3. Air condensers 4. Engine room 5. Conveyor belt wood chips 6. Electrical substation 7. Vehicle scale 8. Office building 9. Storage area and wood chips handling 10. Canopy wood chips short-term storage 11. Flue biomass ditches 12. Waste water system site 13. Trenches 14. Composting 15. Biogas plant 16.

SECTION PERSPECTIVE

1. 2. 3. 4. Boiler Electrostatic preciptator ESP Acid gas abatement reactor Bag filter 5. 6. 7. 8. Acid gas abatement reactor Economizer Silencer Chimney +SME

of the design of the agricultural land, while revisiting the architecture of rural wooden barns.

The sophisticated external skin of the industrial furnace has large triangular surfaces woven with parallel wooden shingles that change direction along the multifaceted envelope, cleverly subverting the geometry of the volume.

Standing alongside, the adjacent chimney is encased in a pattern of triangular steel plates that extend towards the sky like a Cubist sculpture.

Vaccarini explains that the project is calibrated on the balance between its rural context and industrial soul, which is revealed in the differing exterior treatment.

The decision to clad the furnace building in wood was a symbiotic choice, as wood chips are used to produce renewable energy, and the pattern is a tribute to the art of weaving and nomadic architecture.

The modern metallic finish of the

chimney is a gleaming representation of the industrial world.

Alongside the mitigation of the main structure, the architect has transformed the area by redefining the relationship between energy production and the agrarian landscape.

Rather than surrounding the site with industrial fences, a natural embankment of dunes planted with trees has been created along the perimeter of the new pole for energy production.

“The entire project started with the very design of its edges,” says Vaccarini. “It is not a barrier, but a permeable, accessible and living element.”

While this environmental mitigation minimises the perception of the height of the Powerbarn, the bastion of dunes, typical of the Adriatic landscape, establishes an

The chimney is encased in a pattern of triangular steel plates that extend towards the sky like a Cubist sculpture.

POWERBARN

Russi, Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy /

2019 /

470,000m2 /

167,000m 2 /

280,000m 2 /

Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti / CONTRACTOR

Termokimik Corporation /

Studio DueEsse /

Techno-HSE /

Libra Ravenna /

Studio Garassino /

Studio Paisà / ENVIRONMENTAL

Steam

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4. Up close, wooden shingles are laid in a parallel pattern that change direction on each face to cleverly subvert the geometry of the building.

5. The bioenergy plant is fuelled by wood chips and plant residue sourced from within a 70km radius.

open interface between the bioenergy plant and the surrounding territory.

Built with earth from the excavation of the construction site, the dunes are between three and 10m high and have been designed with accessible paths for cyclists and pedestrians.

Fortifying the connection to the local area, the biomass plant is fuelled with materials sourced from a 70km radius, including wood chips and plant residue from mowing and pruning.

These are shredded and stored in vast rectangular allotments, before being dried beneath an ample canopy and led to the furnace through a conveyer belt.

The annual production of the pole is estimated at 222 GWh, which also includes a biogas plant powered by livestock sewage and a small photovoltaic energy plant.

Consistent with the overall environmental sensitivity of the project, approximately 60 percent (280,000m²) of the original industrial site has been renaturalised and returned to the community, including three large wetlands.

Remarks Vaccarini, “The greatest transformation is in the relationship between the agricultural territory and the industrial area, a landscape intervention, even before an industrial one.”

The site also features a biogas plant and photovoltaic energy plant.

WORDS MICHELE KOH

PHOTOGRAPHY

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1. Built in 1932, St. Nicholas

Church on Gaolan Road was built in the Russian Orthodox style.

2. Inside the renovated church is a steel bookcase structure that follows the silhouette of the interior wall.

Chinese practice Wutopia Lab has renovated the interiors of a former Russian orthodox church.

Set on a thoroughfare in Shanghai, China known for its well-preserved, European-style historical architecture, it turned the landmark building into a poetry bookshop named Sinan Books. St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church at No. 16 Gaolan Road was built in 1932 in the typical Russian orthodox style with onion dome spires.

One of the more outstanding historical buildings in Shanghai, it has, over the last few decades, been used as an office, factory, warehouse, canteen, private residence, a club, then restaurant, before it was abandoned.

“The first time I entered the church, I felt like I was standing in the middle of the ruins of a maze,” says Wutopia’s lead architect Yu Ting.

“But after my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see the remnant details of the different architectural styles along the walls and ceilings.

“Additions and ornamentations from different eras in Shanghai’s history had been integrated into the interiors of this old church.” Commissioned by Chinese publishing group Shanghai Century Cloud Culture Development, this adaptive reuse project had to adhere to the regulations of the Shanghai Historic Building Protection Affairs Center.

3. The modular cashier counter in the main hall can be split into three movable sections.

This meant that no alterations could be made to the building’s existing façade, structural system, basic floor plan or the interior details on the walls and ceilings.

To meet these regulations, Yu and his team used an archaeological technique to distinguish the different architectural elements within the building, so they could retain and restore those with historical value.

“After peeling off layers of paints, the textures and vicissitudes of the original 1932 church were finally revealed,” says Yu who removed recently-added structures – such as a steel-framed interlayer that was built in the 1990s – that were not historically significant.

He and his team cleaned up the interiors to reveal the original height of the main hall and shortened a more recent addition on the eastern side of the building, so it was aligned with the original parts of the church.

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4. The 9.9m-tall structure is set 50cm apart from the interior wall so it looks like “a church within a church”.

5. The historical architectural elements of the old church on the walls and ceilings peek through the new bookcase.

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6. Wutopia Lab replaced the faded stainedglass windows with blue flim to bring more light into the interiors.

FLOOR PLAN

1. Main hall 2. Side hall 3. Side hall 4. Cafe 5. Showroom 6. Reading room 7. Pulpit 8. Lounge 9. Baking room 10. Lavatory

The floor plan includes a main hall in the centre of the building, flanked by two smaller side halls.

To showcase the books, Yu and his team built a steel bookcase structure that followed the outline of the interior walls and ceiling in the main hall.

This was set 50cm apart from the walls of the main hall so it looks like the “bones” of the church.

Additional book display areas were created within the two side halls – one for children’s books and the other for cultural and creative books. According to Yu, the biggest challenge was finding a way to drop this huge steel bookshelf into the narrow and tall interior volume.

His solution was to have a crane with expandable steel pipes and motors built on site.

It would rise upwards so welders could graft the steel plates of the bookshelf as the structure advanced to greater heights.

“The steel bookshelf was built by 30 workers in 80 days. The workers first cut 5mm steel plates into 128 standpipes, 640 large steel plates and 2,921 small steel plates to create 23 layers of crossbars according to the drawings.

“They then pre-assembled the parts outdoors before moving the sections indoors and welding them together. The 9.9m-tall bookshelf was then placed 50cm apart from the wall so it looks like ‘a church within a church’,” says Yu.

Blue film was chosen to replace the faded stained-glass window.

Explains Yu, “An infinitely transparent blue is rendered when sunlight spills into the side halls, dissolving the separateness

AXONOMETRIC DRAWING

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7. Dining areas for the café were located in the eastern and western perimeters of the building.

SINAN BOOKS POETRY STORE

Shanghai, China /

2019 /

388m 2 /

Wutopia Lab /

Yu Ting /

CLIENT Shanghai Century Cloud

Culture Development

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between the three halls and bringing more light into the main hall.” The eastern and western perimeters of the church were transformed into the dining areas for a cafe.

Yu used a chocolate-brown colour scheme for this café to provide a warm contrast to the imposing metal book display structure.

The new programme also includes a showroom, reading room, lounge, baking room and bathroom. Since Sinan Books also plays host to events such as poetry readings and book review sessions, Yu redesigned the former altar area of the church to be a stage.

“We split the cashier counter in the main hall into three movable tables. When there is an event, this counter is separated and its three parts are moved to the entrance area and side halls.

“During events, the area that used to be the altar becomes the stage for the speaker. This way, the audience can sit in the main hall, while the side halls can continue to operate as a bookstore and rest area,” says Yu. An existing interior balcony was turned into a viewing deck, where customers can see how the steel bookshelf integrates with the old masonry of the church.

To highlight the marriage between old and new, Yu added light strips on the walls, so customers can distinguish the old features of the building from the new.

Wutopia Lab has done a miraculous transformation of this former church and the result is nothing short of divine.

8. The futuristic aesthetic of the metal bookcase is juxtaposed against the café’s warm and earthy colour scheme.