The enduring Lingotto manufacturing facility in Turin, Italy, is a constructing that is beloved by structure followers and petrol-heads alike. Beforehand house to Fiat’s manufacturing and testing amenities, together with a take a look at monitor on its roof, it has now begun a brand new chapter internet hosting an enormous rooftop backyard.
Designed by architect Giacomo Matté-Trucco, the Lingotto manufacturing facility initially opened in 1923. The attractive modernist constructing measures 500 m (1,640 ft) in size and reaches a peak of 28 m (91 ft). Whereas in use, it had an attention-grabbing inside structure that concerned automotive elements getting into on the bottom ground and a completed automotive rising on the high, able to be put by means of its paces on the looping rooftop take a look at monitor, which measures 1 km (0.62 miles).
As soon as automotive manufacturing got here to an finish on the location in 1982, there was loads of dialogue about what to do with the hulking construction. Fortunately, it dodged demolition and as an alternative obtained a refresh courtesy of Renzo Piano, who reworked it right into a mixed-use workplace and retail constructing and added the distinctive glass ball assembly area seen within the picture above, which Piano just lately replicated together with his Oscars constructing.
The rooftop backyard challenge is the newest main addition to the evolving web site and is known as La Pista 500. It was commissioned by Fiat and designed by Benedetto Camerana, of Camerana & Companions. Drawing inspiration from New York Metropolis’s Excessive Line, it concerned planting 40,000 vegetation, bushes and shrubs across the take a look at monitor.
Marco Schiavone, courtesy Benedetto Camerana
Elsewhere there are rest areas, pedestrian walks, an athletics monitor, a health space, a play space, plus a yoga and meditation space. Artworks and exhibitions are additionally being hosted within the area. It is really hailed as Europe’s largest hanging backyard by Camerana, although Paris’ Nature Urbaine is slightly bigger – albeit the French challenge is a working rooftop farm and never strictly a backyard.
Clearly, all that greenery will want loads of water, with 20,094 m (nearly 66,000 ft) of irrigation pipes required to maintain all of it watered. Nonetheless, the architects did take some steps to mitigate the water utilization, selecting native and drought-resistant vegetation, in addition to water-saving cultivation strategies.
“The backyard develops as a recent linear park with 28 giant islands protecting simply over 7,000 sq m [75,000 sq ft] of the 27,000 sq m [290,600 sq ft] accessible,” defined Benedetto Camerana. “It hosts greater than 40,000 vegetation belonging to 300 species and varieties chosen with an ecological criterion, so there are solely vegetation from the Piedmontese and neighboring areas, additionally distributed in accordance with seasonal coloration variations. For his or her cultivation, new conception strategies have been adopted which have drastically lowered the consumption of water and fertilizers, a selection dictated by sustainability standards.”
Fiat
Alongside the rooftop backyard, a Fiat 500-themed cafe and museum space has additionally just lately opened within the Lingotto constructing. This area options an eye catching wood inside design created by Studio Lamatilde, together with a wood mannequin of a Fiat 500 and an exhibition on the automotive’s historical past, plus views of the take a look at monitor and backyard.
Moreover, in a pleasant contact, if you would like to unleash your internal Michael Caine and re-enact that Italian Job automotive chase scene your self, there’s additionally a chance for guests to check drive Fiat’s electrical 500, plus different electrical automobiles, on the well-known take a look at monitor.
Sources: Camerana & Companions, Fiat, Renzo Piano
