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In 2018, Treviso, Italy-based architecture studio DEMOGO won second prize in a competition for office and laboratory architecture in the northeastern Italian city of Bolzano. The design concept is based on subtracting quality from the overall urban block: an imaginary erosion that reveals the interior of the building by turning the opaque steel skin into a transparent glass surface. This excavation process resulted in a series of stepped levels, each with its own roof garden. The result is a beautiful and convincing structure with a strong urban form. This form was so strong that it inspired another DEMOGO project of the same year: the new regional headquarters of the Bologna Financial Guard (the Italian police force responsible for enforcing rules such as taxation and customs), which was completed last summer.
This project is the result of a project we are– Italy’s competitive process, which allocates public works faster than competition. TRAIN STATION, In effect, design submissions are reduced to proposals, allowing clients to focus on the financial feasibility of the project.In this sense, cost efficiency and conceptual clarity are station, This is why DEMOGO’s winning solution is extremely reasonable.
The heart of the scheme is a stepped stack of four floors of office space (and as many rooftop gardens). Below the office is a warehouse that houses the Financial Guard’s files. The warehouse is closed to the public and occupies the entire ground floor of the building, with the sole exception of a small entrance hall. The classical architectural composition is therefore slightly disturbed by the fact that the plinth contains introverted service spaces instead of an ornate public foyer.
Although the office is the programmatic centerpiece of the project, it is not the main activity. They are simply designed according to current standards, regulations and technology. It is around them – in the urban form that connects space, material structure and architecture – that the architectural power of the DEMOGO project emerges.
The building is situated on a triangular plot not far from Bologna Central Station. The three edges of the site present distinct urban conditions: a dense residential area to the east, a social center occupied by a junk yard to the south, and a railway infrastructure system to the north. The building’s terraced shape responds to the complexity of the site and changes depending on where you are. Its lowest height matches that of neighboring buildings but gradually becomes taller towards the northern edge of the site near the railway zone. Consideration of the surrounding urban conditions means that the building subtly integrates itself into its plot while still becoming a visible urban landmark.
The rusty material of the railroad echoes with the materials of the building envelope. The façade is supported by an exposed concrete skeleton and is composed of modular, rhythmic 100 x 380 cm red steel panels. These balance the overall composition while concealing the technical infrastructure running on the facades. The pattern is interrupted by string lines at each layer, creating a controlled play of vertical and horizontal lines and thinner and thicker shadows. On the top floor, the façade is perforated to publicly announce the presence of the technical equipment behind it. Likewise, the facade opens further, creating a portico on the ground floor and revealing a hanging garden. The porch’s steel frame is thicker than the structure requires in order to cast longer shadows. This compositional choice changes the perception of the building from both inside and outside the street.
In contrast, the warehouse’s gray stucco finish makes it look more like a basement, as if the building has been lifted out of the ground. But given that the surrounding walls hide the headquarters from public view, this departure would only come as a surprise to visitors and employees of the headquarters.
But the entrance directly below the sky garden raises expectations for the project’s most interesting feature: a diagonal atrium formed by a landscaped staircase that reaches all the way to the building’s roof. In addition to connecting all office floors and providing walkers with dynamic views of the surrounding cityscape, the long red resin steps serve as the stage for an unintentional procession of memories that Financial Guard employees carry out every time they visit the office. Reflecting the military character of the building through the way they move through it. This dramatic approach to architecture is one of DEMOGO’s calling cards.
This quality of space is not common in recent Italian civil architecture, let alone buildings built for the police.This is partly due to the lack of public investment in this sector of construction and partly due to the way the construction industry station Conceived. Given that they already contain instructions on how the project should be organized, they often limit the architect’s freedom to explore creative spatial solutions.
DEMOGO’s proposal for the headquarters of the Financial Guard in Bologna tackles this problem head-on.it publicly criticized the first signs we are Proposing a different, unsolicited approach to design. DEMOGO’s strategy was first tested on this project and proved successful, earning the company five subsequent awards station Police building design since 2019 and several other public competitions. This is good news. Not only does DEMOGO find itself in the rare situation of a small emerging architectural practice working exclusively for the public administration, but also for Italian architecture in general. DEMOGO’s upcoming municipal projects may actually reopen a once fertile area of architectural production, showing that good design should not be limited to private clients.
Davide Tommaso Ferrando is an architectural critic, curator and researcher interested in the intersection of architecture, cities and media. He is currently a researcher at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
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