BARILLA PAVILION

Client: Barilla Group G. e. R Fratelli

Place: Parma, Italy
Open Competition: 2018

Type: Culture

Area: 15,000 m²

Budget: Undisclosed

AZPML

Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Ivaylo Nachev, Carlos Orihuela, Stella Salta.

Local partner:

Metrogramma

Our proposal for the Barilla Pavilion is based on a series of modules, with a geometry which is optimized to provide long-span shells to host a variety of programs. The sequence of cells allows for future rearrangement. The function of the shells is not only determined by their structural performance, but also by environmental performances, providing always natural daylight and ventilation to all spaces.

We imagine the pavilion as a sequence of “chapels” of slightly different scale and geometry, in which the different programs could be loosely fit in the future. Every cell includes extensive contact with the garden and a central chimney which will naturally ventilate the space of every “chapel.” There are three “chapel” types: the Hexagonal Chapel, the Pentagonal Chapel and the Square Chapel. The concept of the “chapel” emphasizes the idiosyncratic quality of the project, which would provide different spatial types arising from regular polygons which always have the same side: 21,60m. The regularity of the side is what allows the flexible grouping of these chapels to form a large, continuous structure to host the multiple programs.

The larger scale chapels will also provide oculi to bring light into the centre of the space, when the depths become too large. The chapels will be build in concrete because its formal resonances with pasta: a single material cast in surfaces that enclose and wrap around the space, with a high capacity for plastic manipulation. Concrete is also a very solid material which will guarantee maintenance-free durability. The building will be built using inflatable domes as a lost scaffolding.

The building typology we are proposing for the Barilla Pavilion will provide great flexibility in terms of organization and future growth, as new domes could be added to the structure in due course, if expanding the capacity of the building became necessary.

The building is located on the site pointing on one side at an entrance from the existing parking site and has two main accesses provided with carport/entrance canopies: one on the West dedicated with Barilla employees, closely related to the Canteen, and another on the East, connected to the visitor’s carpark.