d+a | Issue 116 • Jun/July 2020

/ INFRASTRUCTURE / 36 of the design of the agricultural land, while revisiting the architecture of rural wooden barns.  The sophisticated external skin of the industrial furnace has large triangular surfaces woven with parallel wooden shingles that change direction along the multifaceted envelope, cleverly subverting the geometry of the volume. Standing alongside, the adjacent chimney is encased in a pattern of triangular steel plates that extend towards the sky like a Cubist sculpture. Vaccarini explains that the project is calibrated on the balance between its rural context and industrial soul, which is revealed in the differing exterior treatment. The decision to clad the furnace building in wood was a symbiotic choice, as wood chips are used to produce renewable energy, and the pattern is a tribute to the art of weaving and nomadic architecture. The modern metallic finish of the chimney is a gleaming representation of the industrial world.  A NATURAL EDGE Alongside the mitigation of the main structure, the architect has transformed the area by redefining the relationship between energy production and the agrarian landscape. Rather than surrounding the site with industrial fences, a natural embankment of dunes planted with trees has been created along the perimeter of the new pole for energy production.   “The entire project started with the very design of its edges,” says Vaccarini. “It is not a barrier, but a permeable, accessible and living element.”  While this environmental mitigation minimises the perception of the height of the Powerbarn, the bastion of dunes, typical of the Adriatic landscape, establishes an SECTION PERSPECTIVE 1. Boiler 2. Electrostatic preciptator ESP 3. Acid gas abatement reactor 4. Bag filter 5. Acid gas abatement reactor 6. Economizer 7. Silencer 8. Chimney +SME OPPOSITE. The chimney is encased in a pattern of triangular steel plates that extend towards the sky like a Cubist sculpture.