Info-point, World Congress of Architecture, Torino

Client: UIA International Union of Architects

Type: Competition 

Size: 125sqm

Status: Concept

Visualisations: Behbahani Hall

A competition entry for an inhabited sculptural loggia and luminous display wall, which transmits information about architecture to the public, whilst providing a place for people to sit and meet.

A competition to design an ‘info point’ for use during the XXIII UIA World Congress of Architecture in Torino. The brief called for a small building, which would inform and provide content about architecture to the public. “A public house for architecture; a symbol of architecture willing to meet the city and everyday life.” The design was to consider eco-friendly materials where everything used was able to be recycled.

A place for interaction and encounter:

Our design proposes a new bounding wall positioned at the south side of Piazza Castelllo at the point where the adjacent road axes converge. From the south the wall presents a luminous display, which transmits information about the congress to the public. At night the wall glows like a beacon, a signal from the most visible edge of the piazza.

The north side of the wall is proposed as an inhabited sculptural ‘loggia’ where the space is formed from a single material, a series of solid structural timber plates. The carved out undulating space creates niches and recesses, pockets of varying intimacy within which the public can come to sit in the shade, pause for a rest, or meet to chat while looking out into the piazza.

The timber loggia culminates by rising from the ground to create a small amphitheatre like staircase and rooftop terrace, spaces that facilitate small meetings, discussions or presentations, and from which an alternative viewpoint of the piazza and wider city can be obtained.

The building is constructed from sustainable solid structural timber panels cut to varying degrees and preassembled in larger sections of transportable size, to be fixed together on site. The majority of the building is constructed from these panels, which are used holistically to form the floor, walls and roof. Opaque and transparent recyclable acrylic sheets are used as cladding to form the luminous display wall and roof canopy respectively.