Location_Porto Recanati, Macerata
Year_2022
Area_3500 sqm
Client_Nextheat srl
Service_Concept design and Preliminary project
There is an imaginary city in Italy. A city made up of buildings decisely distant from each other, but at the same time united by the italian highway network. A linear city, defined by a ribbon of asphalt, flanked by buildings where people work. Places where creative minds, management strategists, research & development brains and blue collars workers, coexist under the same roof. They are Brembo with its Kilometro Rosso on the A4, Salewa on the A22, Technogym on the A14, the Prada factories on the A1, to name just the best known. These corporate architecture, closely linked to the territory of origin, by facing the main Italian highway infrastructure express openness towards vast markets. Nextheat has set an ambitious challenge: to be part of this series of companies. The company board decided to be on that specific national stage by acquiring a plot of land overlooking the A14 in the municipality of Porto Recanati. Willing to be leader of the revitalization of Marche’s industrial sector, Nextheat set the target of building an headquarters that lives up to its values.
A building located along a highway is perceived with a peripheral gaze within a few seconds. Even large buildings become fleeting apparitions, halfway between something real and virtual. Nextheat headquarters will be perceived by 99% of people for what the façade facing the A14 motorway will be able to express in the time of a flap of wings. If the parallelepiped volume of the building itself is simple, nothing more than a horizontal sign, it is clear that the façade facing the motorway becomes an iconic and powerful advertising billboard. The architectural project of the meta-physical façade is all about the physical phenomenon of radiation. Radiation is the basis of every heater. While it is true that the radiator also heats through the convective motion of the air, what strikes our senses is the hot radiation that we feel coming from the plates or radiant tubes. A physical behavior that is tactile-without-touching. Radiation expresses the immaterial property of heat, a quality shared with light and more generally with energy. The building expresses this concept through a facade cladding in polycarbonate panels, a diaphanous and light material, which tends to dematerialize in sunlight and which at night, when backlit, radiates its own light like a lamp. This translucent and impalpable skin is counterpointed by a system of frames and white metal blades, which refer more directly to the sharp and rhythmic language of the Nextheat aluminum radiators, in whose fascinating extruded sections the technological soul is hidden.
If the special relationship with the motorway defines the most visible image of the company headquarters, it is on the diametrically opposite façade that are located the entrance, the showroom and the offices. This façade of impressive width comes at the end of a promenade of symmetrical warehouses which gives a certain order and monumental quality to the industrial area in which the project lot is located. An height portico clearly signals the entrance, providing protection from weathering. The entrance hall takes that monumental proportions, configuring an open space that acts as hinge between the reception, the cafeteria, the lounge and the offices located on the first floor.
An echo of manufacturing reverberate powerfully, anticipating the fascination of industrial machines. The large hall is dominated by a staircase and a long walkway that connects like an industrial crane the offices to the meeting room. Both in raw steel, they express the aesthetic power of the semi-finished product while manufacturing.
The “blue collar” area, although communicating with the entrance lobby, uses a separate entrance from the external square and a dedicated cafeteria and relaxation area located adjacent to the changing rooms.
Nextheat‘s entire production process is based on strong environmental sustainability. The radiators raw material are in fact 100% recycled aluminum and each component is dry assembled according to a reversibility principle.
For this reason, the designed building also has a level of technological innovation such that it can be classified as nZEB (Nearly Zero Energy Building) and the entire building process follows a LEED quality protocol, for which it is estimated to reach the Gold class.
The key elements that differentiate the building from the traditional construction approach are:
1_Polycarbonate facades
Characterized by fast assembly, high thermal insulation values and the ability to illuminate environments homogeneously, the polycarbonate façade gives the right high-tech imprint to the building. Despite being an innovative material, the polycarbonate façade can count on a large case history and an Italian supplier as Dott.Gallina. The main technical characteristics of the 13-chamber polycarbonate paneling with a total thickness of 60 mm and a useful module width of 500 mm are:
– Thermal insulation 0.7 W/m2K
– Acoustic insulation 28 dB
– Linear expansion 0.065mm/m°C
– Operating temperature -40°C +120 °C
– UV protection
– Reaction to fire EN 13501 EuroClass B-s1,d0
2_Photovoltaic skylight
The skylight that is planned to be installed on the entire roof works like a two-faced Janus, one face facing north, the other facing south.
From the first, indirect and zenithal natural light is obtained, which allows enormous savings on electrical lighting costs, as well as bringing psychophysical benefits to the workers. From the second, a great quantity of kilowatt hours is obtained, which can be used directly for offices, industrial machinery and charging electric vehicles.
3_Internal greenery
Nextheat headquarters will avail benefits of greenery like air purification, sound absorption and psychophysical well-being of workers. Presence of plants is expected in the entrance hall, but also in the offices and even within the industrial areas.
4_Rainwater recovery
Given the large covered surface, rainwater will be channeled into an underground cistern to be used for toilets, gardens watering and industrial machinery.
5_Air conditioning with heat pumps
Thanks to the photovoltaic equipment, electric heat pumps will be used for the winter and summer air conditioning of the entire complex, combined with a controlled mechanical ventilation system for the office area.
Project in numbers
Plot area: 10,930 sqm
Production hall: 3,190 sqm
Offices: 410 sqm
Service areas: 440 sqm
Building height: 7.7 m
Parking surface: 230 sqm
Green area: 3000 sqm
Photovoltaic power: 170 kw
