news
- 03.04.2008
New Brembo Research and Development Centre
Stezzano - Bergamo, Italy
the Kilometro Rosso, seen at night from the A4 motorway
The new Research and Development Centre of the Brembo company is the first building to be completed as part of the new architectural complex envisaged in Jean Nouvel’s Master Plan for the Kilometro Rosso Science & Technology Park. The new R&D Centre includes management offices, as well as expanding the research facilities available to Brembo, the first company to move into the Kilometro Rosso. In effect, the only existing building in the Science & Technology Park area, designed by the renowned US practice Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) and built originally for Hewlett-Packard, has already for some years been the research premises of Brembo and Brembo Ceramic Brake System, a joint venture with the Daimler-Chrysler group. The architectural design of the new R&D Centre is by Jean Nouvel, author of the Kilometro Rosso Master Plan, the interior design by Blast Architetti (Bombassei, Siccardi and Traversa) and the landscaping by Land.
The Kilometro Rosso Science & Technology Park covers an area of 392,000 m2 (90,000 m2 under cover) and is located just outside the city of Bergamo, along the A4 Milan-Venice motorway. Conceived internally as a campus set in a greenfield site, the signature feature of the complex is the “Kilometro Rosso”, a spectacular architectural screen fabricated from extruded aluminium and coloured red. This Red Wall, intended by Jean Nouvel essentially as a protective sound barrier to shield the buildings and the park from the noise and pollution of the motorway traffic, is carried on a steel-reinforced concrete base clad in its entirety with finned extruded aluminium sections.
sketch by Studio Land for the pask/rendering of the Kilometro Rosso Science and Technology Park area
The continuity of the frontage is broken by large openings that resemble the air intake ducts in an automobile body shell. These are intended to provide access both to cars and to pedestrians headed for the buildings in the park. Among the various architectural elements in Kilometro Rosso, Nouvel has adopted a free flowing green landscape with no fences, and minimal vehicular access above ground, with new buildings reachable by way of roadways concealed underground. This oasis of architectural excellence looks to host multidisciplinary activities centred on research and technological innovation, with a view to creating a knowledge transfer network and generating employment for more than 3000 persons over the next 7-8 years.
The Brembo Research and Development Centre occupies 11,000 m2 and is located at the south-easternmost end of the Kilometro Rosso Science and Technology Park area. The building is joined to the Red Wall, which widens at this point to admit the main horizontal access ways, and is made up of parallelepiped blocks extending into the Park. The blocks are interconnected and interrelated on the basis of a plan envisaging variations in dimensions, offsets and cantilevers. Entry is by way of a steel-clad cylindrical structure inserted tangentially into the Wall. The glazed outer skins of the ventilated façades are provided in reality by a sophisticated system of louvres that can be positioned as dictated by necessity; in this way, the façades take on a thickness and density suggestive of ice, leaving the observer to imagine the different vital functions carried on inside.
the Brembo Research and Development Centre seen by day and by night
There are three external materials: the sheet of the Red Wall, reflecting the territorial scale, the glass of the parallelepiped blocks, a symbol of administrative activity, and the silvery metal cladding of the top floor and the entrance cylinder, illustrating the conceptual content. These three materials correspond to three different forms (line, pure volume, free form) and externalize three core elements, each conveying a different message. The four cantilevers, two to the south and two to the west, are constructed adopting a solution that combines concrete wall-beams and metal horizontals fabricated with steel joists and corrugated panels.
The more pronounced western cantilever is on the highest floor and accentuated by the fact that it rests on a receding stepped front. The Brembo R&D Centre is accessible directly from a parking area that runs alongside the motorway and stands elevated from the level of the park on which the complex is laid out. This means that the entrance to the building is on the first floor of the cylinder, effectively a hub from which routes lead to all parts of the interior. The cylinder is an interchange for the horizontal access ways (“rue corridor”) incorporated into the width of the Red Wall, which widen and curve away toward the Park. On the west side, the main “rue corridor” leads from the entrance along a winding path to a number of offices and to a conference room housed in one of the cantilevers; on the eastern side, a drop connects the new building with the existing SOM building. In addition to the horizontal access ways, a Brembo products showroom and a cafeteria are housed on the upper floors of this longitudinal space. Two bridges taken off the Wall on the first and second storeys connect with the two parallelepiped blocks, which are used as offices. The way up to the top floor, which runs parallel to the Wall, is via the entrance cylinder.
detail of overhead walkway seen by night
The ground floor is laid out with open-landscape research laboratories and prototyping workshops. The materials and colour schemes selected by Blast Architetti for all interiors are typified by an aesthetic approach applying rigour: the bare reinforced concrete of the perimeter walls presents a raw texture complementing the severity of vertical surfaces finished in waxed gypsum, and the transparent lightness of screenprinted glass partitions that divide the office space and afford a continuous line of vision toward the surrounding park. The display niches - cut into the side walls of the main rue corridor – contain superior mechanical components manufactured by Brembo, and are illuminated using special Led sources able to produce changes in tone and colour. On the outside, the Brembo building appears as so many rectangular blocks, rathersurfaces, while creating no problems of glare or reflection on VDU screens. The fixtures used in the meeting rooms are fluorescent Cestello, providing both background and accent lights. Recessed Lineup fixtures functioning as wall washers are installed along the corridors, the light from these units combining with uplight provided by recessed Linealuce fixtures.
The green space around the Brembo R&D Centre forms part of the overall design presented by Studio LAND (Landscape Architecture Nature Projects New Brembo Research and Development Centre Development) for the Science and Technology Park. The idea of LAND is that the Kilometro Rosso should be seen as a metaphor for a wind tunnel, where “the fluid element, encountering the rigid geometries of the architecture, generates movements, waves, eddies and vortices”. In practice, the eddy and vortex components are gentle relief features and bodies of water. The soil is landscaped with crests appearing as small dunes placed to shield internal access ways or to delimit different areas. Trees are planted to a plan of progressively decreasing density, more pronounced adjacent to the Red Wall, and thinning out toward the surrounding farmland. The Park is illuminated by fixtures generating limited visual impact: recessed Ledplus for the walkways and iWay fixtures for roadways.
colour variation in the corridors
Text adapted freely from monograph by Sebastiano Brandolini in “Brembo Research and Development Centre 2004-2007”
preliminary, definitive and executive design, art direction: Jean Nouvel
consultant to Jean Nouvel: Hubert Tonka
croject leader: Alessandro Carbone
lighting fittings used: Cestello FL, Lineup, Linealuce, Ledplus, iWay
Studio Blast Architetti - Bombassei, Siccardi, Traversa
Luca Bombassei (born 1966, Bergamo) and Simona Traversa (born 1968, Milan) set up their Milan-based Blast practice in 2001. In 2005 they were joined by Franz Siccardi (born 1964, Milan). Having completed their studies at the Architecture Faculty of the Milan Polytechnic and graduated, Luca Bombassei, Simona Traversa and Franz Siccardi took up a variety of training and work experiences in Italy and the US, which today provide the versatile knowledge base of Blast Architetti, operating currently with twenty associates. Numerous projects have been completed recently, including the renovation of several historic buildings in Venice, the new Brembo stand, and the Casa del Habano in Milan. In addition to a great number of private dwellings, works now nearing completion include the Milan headquarters of Rezia Energia Italia, the Master Plan for a residential centre in Ivory Coast, and a redevelopment project for a former industrial estate in Tuscany. As part of the Master Plan by Jean Nouvel, The Kilometro Rosso Science and Technology Park represents the studio’s most complete experience to date. The Centro delle Professioni, the first architectural project in the province of Bergamo to be certified energy-efficient, will be completed by the end of 2007. The building operates with an overall energy requirement less than half of that needed by a traditional building, and releases harmful emissions into the air at a rate 70% lower. These results qualify the Centro delle Professioni as falling within the parameters of excellence established by the top certification protocols, namely class A of the Italian CASACLIMA scheme, and the Platinum level specified by the US certification program LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). These are targets that Blast is also intending to emulate and surpass with its Interdisciplinary District of Research and Technology (completion due at the end of 2008).
Jean Nouvel and Luca Bombassei
