Article source: Antonio Ravalli Architetti

As a part of a program for the conversion of an old hemp factory into a new city center for the town of Migliarino, the project gains a youth hostel out of a 510 m2 portion of the building. The site position is barycentric to the touristic circuits which take place during the summer, thanks to the proximity of the Po River Delta Natural Park, but the project has to count on a reduced regional funding, 270.000 € including the furniture, and a doubtful management profitability. Thus the management aspects, both with the energetic and economic saving, are the principal matters. The hostel is imagined as a ‘passive machine’, in which natural air fluxes are conveyed in order to obtain climatic benefits, while the systems distribution and the morphological disposition of the rooms, conceived as to minimize the utilized elements and technologies, allow an elastic hosting capacity: the highest during the spring and the summer, or in case of special events, reduced to the essential during the low seasons.

Photo of exterior, Image Courtesy © Antonio Ravalli Architetti

• Architects: Antonio Ravalli Architetti
• Project: MiNO – Migliarino hostel
• Location: Migliarino, Ferrara, Italy
• Photography: Antonio Ravalli Architetti
• Engineering: Mezzadringegneria srl (structure); Studio Zambonini (HVAC); GF studio associato (electric)
• Client: Comune di Migliarino (FE)
• Materials: wood, concrete, fabric
• Category: hostel
• Area: 510 m2
• Year: 2010 (more…)