TreeHugger by MoDusArchitects: all photos by ©Oskar Da Riz – Courtesy of MoDusArchitects.
Architecture – “TreeHugger takes on the qualities of airiness and levity in alignment with the site’s antecedent structures which were defined by slender columns, deep loggias, and delicate overhangs.” Explain at MoDusArchitects. Located just outside the historical centre of the South Tyrolean city of Bressanone in northern Italy, The building is characterized by an existing monumental tree that governs the design.
TreeHugger twists and turns around the central platanus to form an inseparable connection between nature and edifice. “The visual and tactile qualities of the roughhewn walls of the bush-hammered concrete and the scaly bark of the plane-tree mimic one another in their juxtaposition.”
With the tree trunk as the fulcrum, five arched spans release the building from the ground, The curvature of the walls, together with the floor slabs form a collaborative composition in which the form, the structure and the building facades become one.
“With its welcoming curves balanced by the decisive concrete tectonic, TreeHugger strikes up a conversation with its historical context while organically attracting passersby and visitors as a magnet devoted to the sharing of local culture.” Say at MoDusArchitects.
In order to achieve the seamless, vertical surface of the outer concrete shell, the full height of the walls was cast from one flow and in successive sections to form a continuous 9-metre-high ring, within which the concrete plates were then poured.
New visual connections are made, not only to the adjacent main building of the Bishop’s Palace, but also to the ancillary Chinese and Japanese pavilions that mark the corners of the Palace gardens. The exotic, sinuous curves of the corner pavilions are re-interpreted in the building.
The building is almost entirely glazed on the ground floor, which houses the public spaces and info booths, to allow maximum transparency and permeability. The entrance is clearly marked by the inset windows and the large overhang that cantilevers out towards the new square. The upper floor, housing the administrative offices, is closed and enigmatic in the sequence of its convex surfaces.
TreeHugger by MoDusArchitects: all photos by ©Oskar Da Riz – Courtesy of MoDusArchitects.
