I infrastructures
By: DROM
Mobility meets architecture
A sculptural portal emerges as the new addition to MoDusArchitects’ ring road project in South Tyrol A new gateway to the centre of Bressanone, a small city in South Tyrol, Italy, is the latest addition to the BressanoneVarna Ring Road. The infrastructural landscape project designed by MoDusArchitects is composed of a series of connected, largely underground roads that reduce traffic volume and provide an alternate route around both city centres. The newly opened central juncture tract of the ring road is the section of the project that reconnects with the main thoroughfare of the SS12 in proximity to Bressanone city centre. Travelling from the ring road, motorists navigate a roundabout and pass through a short U-shaped tunnel along with its two, respective exposed concrete portals to arrive at a shifted axis with Via Roma – the main road leading directly into town. The sculptural mouth of the new portal facing east takes a sinuous form that contributes to the lexicon of curvilinear elements that characterize many of the design interventions of the original project, steering away from the strictly technical or functional vocabulary typically offered by infrastructural projects.
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“Civil engineering projects provide a unique opportunity to bring together the different scales – and at times jarring specificities – of infrastructure, landscape, architecture and urban decorum. The Ring Road project underlines the reciprocity of these disciplines as a singular design challenge, not just given the environmental and economic impact of these projects, but also as a model for small cities grappling with questions of mobility, heritage and placemaking” – explained architect Sandy Attia, co-founder of MoDusArchitects. The other half of the founding duo, Matteo Scagnol continues: “The role
