Domus Technica – Immmergas Center for Advanced Training in Brescello, Italy by Iotti + Pavarani Architetti

Article source: Iotti + Pavarani Architetti

Immergas has extended its research and production field to new generation technologies, related to renewable resources exploitation (like solar thermal, photovoltaic and heat pumps); the new Center for Advanced Training contains teaching rooms and showrooms where technicians and professionals may be trained and updated on both implanting and installation technologies tied to productions based on renewable resources. So the building’s outline is that of an “open laboratory”- a space in which one works and is received.

Image Courtesy Roland Halbe

• Architects: Iotti + Pavarani Architetti (Paolo Iotti, Marco Pavarani)
• Project: Domus Technica – Immmergas Center for Advanced Training
• Location: Brescello, Reggio Emilia, Italy
• Client:Immergas
• Structures:Studio Gasparini-Gualerzi-Teneggi (Sara Trussardi)
• Services:Studio Termotecnici Associati (Marco Manghi)
• Electrical:Tecnoprogetti (Ferruccio Mirandola)

Image Courtesy Roland Halbe

• Construction supervision (on behalf of the client):Guido Simonazzi
• Contractors: Impref srl – Frignani srl (construction), Facadesign (facades), Claudio Bassoli srl (interior finishes), Bacchi spa (external works), Torreggiani & C. spa (thermo-mechanical systems), Automazioni Bigliardi srl (electrical systems), Eurostands spa (furnishings), iGuzzini (lighting)
• Floor area:900 mq 
• Site area: 4.500 mq 
• Schedule: 2009 – design ; 2010 – construction 
• Photography: Roland Halbe

DOMUSTECHNICA Architects portrait

It is shaped to create a flexible and sophisticated machine, perfectly capable of operating alternately with all the different technologies : the edifice does infact produce all the energy for its own needs as well as contributing excess energy to the existing office building thanks to the operation of the technology on display . The building stands in alignment and continuity with the front entry of the existing offices, yet it features as an isolated and prismatic block.

The rising part of the building leans on a “heavy base” that roots it to the ground, performing like a translucent compact volume inspired by the industrial vocation of the region. At the same time it tries to redeem this area’s appearance by showing a refined and evocative image of “technical place”.

Client: Immergas s.p.a.
Leader in Italy in the design and manufacture of gas boilers for domestic use, both in the sectors of traditional and condensing boilers, Immergas is an affirmed organization that is also appreciated on international markets, in constant growth and continuous expansion towards new foreign scenarios. The headquarters of Immergas in Brescello (RE) measures over 50,000 sq.m. and hosts more than 600 staff.

Innovation is part of the Immergas philosophy, a strategic lever that guides the birth of each new product (the range of Immergas products is in constant evolution to satisfy the requests of different markets) Moreover , Immergas is not just a company of products, but it is actually an organization that believes in customer service as a strategy to gaining the trust of their target, ensuring a high level of satisfaction and winning over new markets. For this reason, Immergas has always placed a great deal of attention on all issues related to pre-sales and after-sales, creating special services with a high added value.
Immergas maintains an exclusive relationship with its installation technicians, who are constantly updated on the latest product developments by means of pre-sales training courses held at its locations.

Relationship between client and architect
At a time of severe economic crisis Immergas decided to take a pro-active course, entering new markets and investing in new forms of energy production from renewable sources, technologies which can, in combination with gas boilers, improve the comfort of the home while at the same time reducing consumption and polluting emissions. This then was the motive behind finding new, special-purpose premises, partly to use for the training and bringing up to date of technicians but also as a means of communicating the Company’s new ambit of research and production through a specific architectural message.

In its search for an innovative and experimental solution, Immergas thus decided to contact a firm of young architects it had not used before, who had demonstrated their ability to project the business’s core values onto the building design, centred on a new image of sustainable architecture. The chairman and founding shareholder of Immergas, Renato Amadei, thus accepted an unconventional architectural proposal, trusting the architects skills and sensitivity while at the same time actively involving himself in the design, ensuring that the building was a suitable working environment as well as a demonstration of principle, that it integrated with the existing offices and it was sufficiently visible from the street, emphasising his desire to adopt solutions which were highly efficient in energy terms but with maximum respect for the principles of environmental sustainability.

Iotti + pavarani architetti
The Architectural practice “Iotti + Pavarani Architetti” was set up in 2001, arising from the professional partnership of Paolo Iotti and Marco Pavarani. The practice is involved in work over a wide range of architectural scales (from design to landscaping) for both the public and private sectors. Current design and construction projects are spread over a number of different sectors: museum, teaching, sporting, commercial, residential and landscaping.

The Practice is particularly involved in building rehab, urban renewal and landscaping, taking part in numerous competitions and workshops. The design work which typifies the projects undertaken by our practice is aimed at the understanding and interpretation of the relations existing between building and landscape, a commitment which remains a constant, irrespective of the scale of the intervention or indeed, the subject matter of the individual project.

The ultimate goal is to identify a strategy involving planning, composition and materials, capable of introducing dense insertions into the landscape, successfully imparting new “energy” to the context in which we are working, “energy” which is consistent with the often unexpressed potential of the setting as a whole. The practice has had a high success rate in architectural competitions, from 2000 to the present its efforts in this field have been rewareded with eleven first prizes, three second prizes, a third prize, two commendations; winning projects were then elaborated all in depth.

Among them, in 2004 they won the first prize in a Europe-wide competition in two phases, concerning a new stadium (holding some 20,000 spectators) and connected equipments and infrastructures, with a project able to insert such an important complex of sport infrastructure in the delicate and picturesque context of the Tuscany hills around Siena.
In 2003 they are the youngest architects rewarded with Special Mention for public spaces, within the Gold Medal for the Italian Architecture of the Triennale di Milano In 2006 they are invited at the 10th Venice Biennale – International Architecture Exhibition: the project SLOW TOWN VEMA is inside the Italian Pavilion ( “La città nuova. Italiay2026”, curator Arch.Franco Purini). In 2011 project for “New Siena Stadium” wins the Retail and Leisure category of the 2011 MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards.

Tags: Brescello, Italy

Categories: Educational and Business Center, Educational Center

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