Excerpt: Terowongan is an office designed by the architectural firm Balance Architettura. The firm was interested in the genesis of permeable, penetrable surfaces, where light and air can pass through and do not clearly define a volume or a function. The team wanted to reach an inaccurate definition of what is outside and what is inside an element, working on the density of materials on their properties. The process for the green fibreglass corridor also goes for the long bookcase in the creative area.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by Architect] The connecting corridor between the creative and administrative areas is made of green backlit fibreglass skin. The project is generated around this space, and passing through this bright tunnel is enveloping and emotional.” The structure is in dry construction, and the wooden and metal elements assembly generates the connection between the different operational areas.
In this project, we were interested in the genesis of permeable, penetrable surfaces, where light and air can pass through and do not clearly define a volume or a function. We wanted to reach an inaccurate definition of what is outside and what is inside an element, working on the density of materials on their properties. The process for the green fibreglass corridor also goes for the long bookcase in the creative area. This is built with a skeleton of iron bars.
The structure, made out of different layers, from some points of view, appears as a volume, in others as a network of overlapping planes, which bring back altered images. The different permeability to light acts with considerable variations between day and evening. Birch is used as a background to these textures, as in our other projects, which in some cases is not just a covering but also becomes an object, as in the entrance steps and the staircase.
From a functional and programmatic point of view, the project was born from an intense confrontation with the creative side of the agency. Hearing about their conceptual and operational needs, but also environmental, made us possible to collect helpful information that was then translated into the project.
We received a second orientation from the former use of the building. The spaces were the location of a historic Turin printing house working there for generations in the Vanchiglia district. A typically Turin space, an internal courtyard, a sleeve with a single floor and the terrace above. A well-lit urban piece that has changed its vocation but keeps the artisan and creative character alive.
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