photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Treviso:
Fabrica – The Design Research Area.
Based in the countryside outside Treviso, at the feet of the pre-Alps,
just north of Venice is Fabrica, a global communications research center that
is part of the Benetton Group. Japanese
archistar Tadao Ando took care of the renovation, enlargement and modernization
of the seventeenth century Palladian style complex. Ando breathed new life into
the existing structure, by creating a remarkable architectural work, bringing
together the Classical beauty of Italian and Western traditions with Oriental
harmony. The ancient combined with an innovative perspective on the future.
Spaces for human occupancy open to the sensory elements of nature. A place
where different cultures come face to face and seek a dialogue.
Fabrica: Design Research Area. Fabrica
is communications research center, not a school in the traditional sense. This
means that there are no “courses”. The
residents (being Fabrica not a school, are not called “students”) learn by
doing. They come from all over the world and have to pass a rigorous screening
process; after which they start a period of education and research on real
projects in the fields of design, photography, music, video, coding and
journalism.
Above: Head of the Design Research Area at Fabrica is French designer Sam Baron,
photographed here with some of the young residents; Marcello Venturini, Marta
Celso, Daniela Mesina, Catarina Carreiras, Sam Baron, Dean Brown, Ferreol
Babin, Ryu Yamamoto, Federico Floriani and Shek Po Kwan. They come from Italy,
Portugal, France, United Kingdom, Japan and China, English is their common
language spoken.
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Fabrica. The
pillars are the element of Tadao Ando’s project that unite the old with the
new, they are typical of his style architecture, and at Fabrica they run right
through, inside and outside, the buildings. The cedar of Lebanon tree, to your
left, was transformed into a sculpture by the then residents winners of a competition to save the tree. They infiltrated flax seed oil into the branches and the trunk.
photographs
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Fabrica. The greater portion of the structure
has been placed below ground, with a stepped configuration of plazas leading
down to a double-height sunken oval court.
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Fabrica. A colonnaded gallery penetrates the old villa and links it to the
facilities; study rooms, studios, workshops, art gallery, auditorium, film
theater, and a library, are all open to the plazas, which provides places for
social exchange and creative work. The sculpture above is by
Bita Fayyazi - Kismet, 2005.
“The Moving Finger writes, and having writ,
Moves on; not at all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.”
Omar Khayvam
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Fabrica – The Library.
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Fabrica. Design Research Area
studio - researchers at work. The Fabrica
organization is built for the 21st century, and designed to address 21st
century problems and opportunities. Their advantage is a diversity of people,
perspectives, formats and technologies.
They work with partners on real world projects and research new ways of communication.
They learn through doing. Dynamically they seek out the new, the
unknown, the emerging; as designers, as makers, as journalists and as
researchers.
Fabrica. Design Research Area studio
– work in progress. Coinciding
with the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan: Fuori Salone, Fabrica and
Daikin present HOT and COLD, an
intriguing workshop of hot and cold experiences; a conceptual representation of temperature, an experiential journey
through a series of multi-sensory artistic and sculptural installations that “give shape” to air, inviting visitors
to participate in an immersive laboratory.
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Fabrica. Design Research Area
studio – work in progress. Amongst the Fabrica and Daikin, Hot and Cold works that
will be exhibited, at the Milan Furniture Fair, ice compositions that hold
tropical plants; human warmth, provided by visitors, will melt the ice and free
the plants.
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati