Parenthesis: Lines on the water boundary

Abstract

The settlement of P.T.E., the Multifunctional Centre to serve the Nautical and Technological District of North-East Sardinia, situated on a stretch of coastline north of the Gulf of Olbia, forces us to think about what kind of relationship could be established between the architecture and surrounding environment, strongly characterized on an urbanistic and landscape level. The extension of the productive area denotes the hard strokes of the intensive anthropization of the land, in one of the most beautiful and evocative places in the Gulf. This undefined stretch of coast is the only one to be left undeveloped in the area and it still evokes the original natural landscape. The rigorous and elementary geometry of the industrial area defines the rules of the various buildings as an inevitable emanation. The buildings are designed with the same logic “box” of the urbanity production, made up of many hangers. The disposition of the buildings is also influenced by the irregular and indented coastline and by the will to define a visual screen against industrial settlements and buildings. A distinguishing characteristic marks the uniqueness and rarity of this project: a large blue canopy, suspended in the sky, hovering and resting on buildings, setting the whole complex in a unitary gesture, otherwise fragmented. It is simultaneously a dividing line and threshold, giving evidence to the area of transition between the city and the industrial-technological trade fair grounds, between the city’s architecture and the nature of the sea, between the shadows and the light. It’s an introductory episode, as the doorway and threshold, emphasizing the “brackets”, the exceptional nature of this settlement, the “window”, from which we can look into and see out of it, depending on ones point of view.