MANIFATTURA TABACCHI
An example of architectural recovery, activity collector
a new model of city
Manifattura Tabacchi, an example of rationalist architecture in Florence. The former Florentine industrial complex, abandoned in 2001 after 70 years of activity, includes an area of 6 hectares, of which 100 thousand square meters of covered area, distributed among 16 buildings. An area that the redevelopment plan envisages as a functional mix, which will be reborn as a center of urban aggregation.
An innovative project, which aims, in the coming years, to create coworking spaces, green areas, workshops and ateliers, a theater, a brewery housed in the former thermal power plant of the structure, a hotel where once there were tobacco warehouses.
The project ranges from commercial spaces to art workshops, from hospitality to services for citizens and tourists. And yet from the restaurant to location for impromptu appointments and moments of encounter. All this with a view to sustainable development, chameleon-like and low energy impact..
OBJECTIVES OF MANIFATTURA TABACCHI RECOVERY
Among the main objectives of the recovery of the Manufacture is the intention to revive a place that was part of the city, but that few have got to know from the inside. The idea is to bring new functions into the structure, to make it a city in the city.
MANIFATTURA TABACCHI WHEN IT ALL BEGAN
The architecture of the Manifattura Tabacchi bears the signature of Pier Luigi Nervi, partner of the company Nervi & Nebbiosi. He collaborated with the Ministry of Finance and, in particular, with the organ of the State Monopolies, which entrusted the company with numerous orders throughout Italy for the construction of new tobacco factories. The complex was inaugurated on November 4, 1940, after an intense building plan started in 1930. The Manufacture immediately played a fundamental role in the economy, urban planning and socio-economic life of the city of Florence.
B9: THE NEW ART CENTRE
Marco and Luca Baldini are the founders of q-bic, the studio that designed the spaces of B9. It is an open concept space inside the first regenerated building of the former industrial complex next to the Cascine park. «For the B9 project we had to think about how to insert new contents, new functions, inside an industrial building with a purely productive character, without distorting its appearance, characterized by the charm given by the abandonment - explain the professionals, As you can read on the website of Manifattura Tabacchi -. For example, the large windows, which separate the public spaces from the workspaces of the makers, consist of windows recovered from the renovation of the B6 building, where Polimoda will be located.
Everything inside the space represents a small piece of the history of the Manufacture, even the bistro counter has been rebuilt reproducing the old canteen counter found in one of the buildings. The external staircase, which allows the connection between the interior and the exterior and fills the large difference in height previously present between the two spaces, perfectly represents the concept of transformation, of change that this regeneration has led to B9 - continue -. What was once the loading dock, a place that was not lived and that was an obstacle for the usability of the spaces was transformed, not only into a point of passage that connects the Courtyard of the Chimney to B9, but also in a gathering place where you can sit, eat, talk or enjoy the scheduled event».
The two professionals also explain that one of the biggest difficulties was having to keep in mind that the B9 set-up is temporary. «B9 is a prototype, a manifesto of what will be Manufacture - they say -. It also represents the will of the management to open this place to the public as soon as possible, to make it permeable to the community around it and enrich it with the presence of people, without having to wait all the years necessary for its completion».
AIR FACTORY: ANTI-POLLUTION PROTOTYPE
An innovative solution to reduce indoor pollution. It is called Air Factory and was made specifically for Tobacco Manufacture. Conceived by neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso and PNAT, a collective of designers, architects and biologists. This device uses and improves the ability of plants to absorb and degrade air pollutants.
The project is the result of studies on indoor air pollutants, of which little is said, but which exceed the level of concentration of outdoor pollutants. Thanks to the plant species present in the greenhouse, the open space air is sucked, filtered and fed back into the room with a substantial reduction in atmospheric agents. Plants have the natural ability to clean the air of pollutants, but to do so must be present in huge quantities. Artemide and Cosentino are the two technical partners who contributed to the realization of the Air Factory.
Specifically, it is a real botanical filtration, with its own peculiarities, different from those typical of traditional filtration: pollutants are separated from biological activities and incorporated into the biomass of plants. As we read on the website of Manifattura Tabacchi "the design of the modules is based on a botanical filter developed by PNAT and tested in the LINV laboratory in Florence, which has validated its effectiveness. Through a mass spectrometer, able to identify the entire spectrum of volatile compounds, air quality data are collected that showed a reduction of air pollutants by 98%".
