In anticipation of a specific use, the turinese building has taken the name of its designer. Photography by Paolo Rosselli. Edited by Matteo Poli

Google Earth: 45 04’ 37.43’’ N, 7 40’ 58.75’’ E

Domus: What is the Porta Palazzo building?
Massimiliano Fuksas: It’s hard to say. It is no longer a commercial building as the shops have been scrapped. There will be exhibitions, performances and a top floor restaurant. Basically Chiamparino doesn’t want to let the shopkeepers in any more…

Domus: With the building now being called PalaFuksas, you yourself have become a “programme”.
MF: I was very angry, but nothing could be done. The trouble is no one has the guts to give it a name, but it should be an exhibition Centre for art.

Domus: What are they afraid of?
MF: It’s very simple. The project was originally for shopkeepers who were located in a 1970’s warehouse full of asbestos. In 1998 the City Council and the shopkeepers asked for an EU loan for a new pavilion but in the meantime they had moved to a semi-suburban area, inside an Auchan shopping centre. So today many of them prefer to stay there and don’t want to come back…

Domus: When the project began had you already lost your clients?
MF: Yes. The City Council was considering other possibilities for this building: a Chocolate Museum, a Textile Centre, a place for performances and things like that… Meanwhile the neighbourhood has changed: the square has been replanned, the stalls rearranged, and Porta Palazzo has gradually become a multi-ethnic place full of artists (at the beginning Mario Merz was also supposed to collaborate on our project). The market is one of the thorniest issues because it’s absolutely the finest one in Europe and must not be spoiled. As we went forward we realised that this building was becoming more ambitious than initially expected. In fact, although it had been envisaged to contain shops, it was turning into a building capable of accommodating anything. Now, if anything, it is more specifically industrial.

Domus: The works on view today, however, are too few, and lost in all that space…
MF: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev asked us to use this space for the Triennale, but they failed to fill it; they had no idea it was so big. It is indeed an enormous place, 3 to 4 thousand square metres that require great density. However the real discovery offered by the Triennale is that by following these exhibits floating in space, visitors come to the roof, where they can stroll around and see other works exhibited.

Domus: What is the underlying concept of your project?
MF: There are two. One is that the roof acts like an apple skin: when you peel it there are no symmetries, and the light passes between the residual cuts between the gaps in the spiral. The other is a reflection on layers, an experiment which I carried out around 1998. Like the Perez Centre for Peace (which we are building in Tel Aviv-Yafo), this project studies ways of intersecting and superimposing different layers, based on gravity. But while the Peace Centre is in concrete, this building is all glass and steel.

Domus: What about the building’s architecture? MF: As I say, the roof has slots in it to let in daylight. There are no false ceilings and the structure is fully visible: the pillars are mirrored, the base of one is the head of the next, and vice versa. All this completely changes the internal layout and space.

Domus: How does the inner circulation work?
MF: The ramps and escalators start from the ground floor and connect the city level with the roof. They are between the outer front and the large covered square. Beneath the ramps is the car park, which has holes in its walls so the ice-stores can be seen. In this way a strong link is created between the various levels. The car park is a liveable place. It has glass portholes that let in light and allow people to look out. From there they can go into the beautiful brick cupolas: enormous spaces that can be used in the future.

Domus: Is the front self-bearing?
MF: Each window pane is a thick bar fitted into two C-sections 14 metres high. The bars are not welded and every now and then there is a steel distancer to absorb loads. The panes are in three colours to create texture, with one greener, one lighter and the other almost transparent.

Domus: While excavating you came across four ice-stores…
MF: It was a surprise, but the whole thing functions perfectly: from the street you see the exterior, Turin and the market, and then there are various layers right down to the subsoil. You see the outside, the inside and then further down the ice-stores, in a gap between the garage. In the film by Filippo Macelloni, the glazed facade reflects the onlooking people and breaks up their image… However, from the front you can see the people on the other side walking on Porta Palazzo, and the inhabitants of the building.

Domus: Perhaps this is why the building perfectly fits into the city… How did you decide to tackle the other buildings at Porta Palazzo?
MF: We stuck to the original plan because it works well with the building next to it and also vis-à-vis the design of the square, divided into four lobes and with Juvarra’s backdrop behind it. It is really and truly a system.

Domus: Which has still maintained its very Turinese origins of the grille…
MF: Yes, we have designed the new intervention exactly where the demolished building stood. I have not moved it even 10 cm. The relation with the other buildings is very strong. It is a rare building: contemporary but built slap in the middle of the historic centre, and it looks as if it has always been there, as if it occupied a natural place of its own.

Interview by Matteo Poli