Michelangelo Galliani, a sculptor and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, wanted to build a studio and workshop next to his home, where he could work outdoors every day and house not only his tools and equipment, but also some of his artworks and any collaborators.
NAT OFFICE Studio has created a structure, simplified to the utmost, consisting of a system of repeated, closely spaced portals, capable of imparting rhythm and division to a large double-height nave, entirely opaque in its working area and fully illuminated across its two levels facing the park.
The light, filtered through a system of blinds, shapes the interior space and fills the working environment. The timber, with its sloping, shaped structure, its bracing and anchoring details, outlines the exterior of the volume in a uniform manner and extends to the large open entrance portico, a sort of diaphragm, to support and accommodate the large slabs arriving from the quarries and the vehicles needed to transport them. At the rear, the extension of the structure becomes a portico and nothing more than a concrete slab, upon which the sculptor shapes the material: a diaphragm between the workspace and the house/greenhouse.
The project is the winner of the DNA Paris 2024 Award in the Small Scale Project category; winner of the InArch 2023 Award in the ER new construction category and a national finalist; winner of the BIGSEE Wood Design Award 2023 in the City and Community category; a finalist in the Wood Architecture Prize 2023, Klimahouse; and has been shortlisted for the Emilia-Romagna Architecture Award 2023.
For more information, visit www.natoffice.it.
CREDITS
Project: Sculpture studio and workshop
Studio: NAT OFFICE
Location: Montecchio, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Year: 2022
