POWERBARN
DESIGNED BY GIOVANNI VACCARINI ARCHITETTI, POWERBARN REDEFINES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENERGY PRODUCTION AND AGRICULTURAL LAND.
A virtuous example of coexistence between the industrial and the agricultural world, Powerbarn by Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti in Russi (Ravenna, Italy) interprets the conversion process of part of an industrial area, once property of the Eridania sugar company, into a bioenergy production plant. Surrounded by dunes and natural pathways, the new pole for the production of electricity from renewable sources is fully encircled by the territory it derives its energy resources from. The architecture of the large furnace building, which dominates the area, offers mutable and faceted displays of itself. Its imposing mass is disguised by means of a wooden skin inspired by the Razzle Dazzle mimetic strategy of military origin.
Bounded to the North-West by the final stretch of the Lamone river, crossed by the railway line that leads from Faenza to Ravenna, bordered to the South-East
by the Carrarone road (onto which its very entrance opens), the former industrial area, that once hosted the Eridania sugar factory, lies on the edge of a wide agricultural land. The area, adjacent to the city of Russi, in the province of Ravenna (Italy), is still dedicated to the historical cultivation of sugar beet and fruit trees, encompasses 47 hectares.
This large district, linked to one of the leading agri-food industries in the Italian entrepreneurial history, has now discontinued the production of sugar on this very site, keeping here only the boxing and storage phases, hosted in an area of about 46,000 square meters. Approximately 280,000 square meters of the site, including three large wetlands, have been restored, re-naturalized and given back to the community; while a program of conversion of the former industrial areas is underway for a part of the remaining area, measuring more than 167,000 square meters.
