architect: Geza
location: Fagagna, Udine, Italy
Driving along the provincial road from Udine to Spilimbergo, one comes across an architecture that immediately catches the eye by virtue of its architectural quality. It is the new administrative and management headquarters of Pratic in Fagagna, a company based in the Friuli region specialized in the design and production of sun awnings. Realized by GEZA - Stefano Gri and Piero Zucchi, this architecture rests silently, soberly and quietly on the ground.
The aggregate consists of the office building, which aims to dialogue with the rapidity and movement of the provincial road, and the factory shed characterized by a façade that alternates glazed casings with prefabricated panels, both of which continue uninterruptedly from ground to roof (10 metres). The surfaces of the panels are covered with black marble grit and black concrete, in three different treatments and three different panel sizes. Frames are projected from the office building towards the garden between the buildings; they almost remind one of notice boards, and serve to channel light into the work areas and photograph the activities inside. The roof of the factory shed hosts a system of photovoltaic panels covering an area of 2,300 square metres. The system produces more energy that required for the company and its activities. Pratic, designed in class A, is self-sufficient. The photovoltaic technology is not so much flaunted as concealed by the architecture housing the system on its roof.
