In 2022, the Collaborative Architecture Office for Research and Development, AMAA, completed the Barn VS Pavilion project. This unique project consists of two structures: a pharmacy designed to resemble a traditional barn, utilizing elements of rural construction found in the Venetian countryside, and a health center designed as a modern pavilion, breaking away from traditional building concepts by incorporating prefabricated elements. The project’s innovative and contemporary design blends functionality with style, resulting in a visually stunning and highly functional space.
Barn VS Pavilion Technical Information
- Architects1-2: AMAA | Collaborative Architecture Office For Research And Development
- Location: Breda di Piave (TV), Italy
- Client: ALIAS SRL – Marco Mettifogo
- Topics: Pharmacy and Health Center
- Project Year: 2022
- Photographs: © Simone Bossi, © Francesca Vinci, © Elena Pellizzer
Barn VS Pavilion is the story – a two-year-long journey – of a mutual conflict between architect and client, confronting themselves with the expressive language of two distinct architectural types.
– AMAA Architects
Barn VS Pavilion Photographs
Text by the Architects
Barn is the building that hosts the pharmacy. It reinterprets the Venetian countryside’s rural constructive tradition, especially the one rooted in the Treviso area. It is made of few yet sophisticated elements: the base, the jealousy, the eaves, the sloping roof, the timber beams, the projecting roof, the window frames, the color, and the lamps. These elements relate to each other according to a precise and distinguishable proportion system.
Guided by a beautiful painting by the Tuscan painter Oscar Ghiglia (from the client’s private collection), each element is the shared outcome of the articulate dialogue between architect and client.
The roof’s outline, for instance, must be extremely thin, according to tradition. Thus, it must dissemble the great thickness of the insulating block. The timber beams are arranged at a precise pitch, imposed by the hollow tiles’ module. The beams’ ends are shaped for the water to glide down easily. The copper gutters are custom-tailored. The plastered volume does not touch the timber beams, enhancing the roofing’s crucial role in the building. The roof tiles’ arrangement completes the work on the roof covering: roof tiles are slightly set back from the roof edge.
The jalousie, traditionally used to improve air circulation, represents the complex building’s identity: elements from the tradition are transferred to contemporary times. The projecting roof has been recovered from the original building and has been modified and improved with a thin 3-mm-thick metal sheet specifically designed for the site. The color shades take inspiration from the context, particularly from the former bakery near the site.
The intervention involved a compositional study of the facade: with regards to forometry, the window frames are set back from the façade, as they could not be protagonists of the façade’s overall image.
Pavilion deliberately breaks from the conception of traditional buildings. The search for great lighting and the demand for quick construction guided the conception of the building designated for the Health Center. This resulted in the use of prefabricated elements that were then assembled into reinforced concrete and some hand-brushed cast-in-place concrete insertions. The project involves a wide area destined for the reception as part of a wider landscape project, which is held together by a 12-meter-long concrete bench, expanding the waiting room’s boundaries and becoming a collective space. Inside, the space is organized along a delicate curve that accelerates the transversal perspective from the entrance to the exit.
The rest is left white, a sort of not-a-color. The main door and window frames are made of weathering steel and participate in the precise definition of the space and the overall image of the building. The pivot hinge door is conceived to take part in the entrance experience.
Barn VS Pavilion Plans
Barn VS Pavilion Image Gallery
About AMAA
AMAA is an architectural studio founded in 2012 by Marcello Galiotto and Alessandra Rampazzo. The founders have academic backgrounds, having completed their PhDs in Architectural Design and History of Architecture. They have collaborated with several universities and have won numerous awards, including the Architects of the Year Under 36 – New Italian Blood in 2015. The studio has experience working on projects of different scales, from small details to global designs. They have also worked on restoration and renovation projects. In addition to its main office in Venice, the studio has a branch office in Arzignano. In 2022, they released a book titled Seemingly Simple, which showcases their work over the past ten years.
Works from AMAA
- Lead Architects: Arch. Marcello Galiotto PhD, Arch. Alessandra Rampazzo PhD
- Design Team: Arch. Serena Bolzan, Arch. Lucia Corti, Arch. Gian Luca Perissinotto, Geom. Francesco Toson, Ing. Riccardo Marchetto
