Marco Poletto and Claudia Pasquero
founded ecoLogicStudio in London after training
at Turin Polytechnic and at the Architectural
Association, specialising in environment and
energy. They are systems thinkers concerned
with the cybernetic relationship between architecture
and its environment. That means their
definition of ecological architecture is neither
purely about the exploitation of new technologies,
nor its rejection or concealment in the vernacular.
And neither is it about
using technology to create
natural metaphors.
EcoLogic go beyond
the formal concerns of the
first generation of parametric
designers. Their hybrid
buildings and prototypes are
dynamic systems that respond
to exterior environmental and
behavioural influences and
generate spatial and climatic
effects.
Demonstrating their
ability to attune buildings to
their environment, and reinvent
conventional typologies
and construction techniques,
last year ecoLogic converted
a large 1970s’ family villa at
Cirié, outside Turin, into a
modern condominium with five
units. Concrete, a new material
in the ’70s, was used widely but
narrowly to copy old styles, and
was wasteful of energy. Traditional houses with
thick walls are dark and rigid, and environmentally
and culturally redundant in a place like Cirié
which can reach 40° Celsius in summer and -10°
in winter. EcoLogic’s “recycling” tactic gave the
villa a “lightwall” envelope, a solid permeable
“sponge” with “pores” able to absorb and filter
heat, light and views to and from the surrounding
garden.
This dissolving effect is differentiated
throughout the building envelope for varying
degrees of privacy and solar exposure. The
system of spiralling cavities was designed with
parametric modelling tools. Casting devices for
the blocks were sent to Italy for prefabrication by
a master craftsman and assembly on site. With a
varied geometry of holes and overall light filtering
behaviour, the lightwall integrates decorative and environmental effects that change when
viewed from different angles, making spaces feel
more atmospheric than volumetric.
After breaking the original massing of the Lshaped
villa with a pedestrian entrance between
its three main blocks, the architects added a
gym in the basement level and balconies on the
southwest side. The interiors are now open and
fluid, maximising the living space. Glazed light
wells and triangulated chimneys now punctuate
the huge roof, integrating it with the differentiated
treatment of the villa’s facades.
The wall’s pores are immediately visible on
approaching the east-facing entrance, resembling
funnels when seen from up close. The
north- and east-facing walls are solid and massive,
contributing to the villa’s thermal stability,
while its pixellated walls are porous to views and to light. Internally, a double-height space
has been cut out to contain the steel staircases
that become birch as they rise upwards. Above,
the roof here is heavily pixellated by skylights
that let in an enormous amount of diffused light
and natural cross ventilation in summer, while
the south facade is transparent, allowing solar
gain in winter while its roof provides shading in
summer.
EcoLogic’s commitment to prototypes led
them to test the behaviour of light transmission
and diffusion and solar access with software
and a rapid prototyped model. Their concern
to evolve new patterns of interaction between
natural and technological domains means each
project strives to be a synthesis that intelligently
foreshadows the emerging age of ecological
interdependence.
Light wall
The conversion of a 1970s’ family villa gave the Londonbased studio an opportunity to develop a system based on a dynamic relationship between architecture and environment. Design ecoLogicStudio – Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto. Text Lucy Bullivant. Photos ecoLogicStudio.
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- 06 March 2009
- Cirié