Zenith Sicurezza srl specialises in the provision of products and services designed to enhance workplace safety. To expand and structure its range of services, the company plans to set up new training spaces for frontal teaching and exercises/demonstrations. To mark the launch of this new corporate branch, an organic series of architectural devices, learning spaces, signage and exercise equipment has been designed to serve the company's learners and employees. In order to convey the corporate values that Zenith aims to communicate, the project reasons around the archetype of scaffolding (if we can identify it in this way).
This is in reference to the wooden structures that have been used since ancient times to erect temples, bridges, palaces and monuments. The concept for the new project was inspired by the historical use of wooden scaffolding, as documented in the 18th-century volume 'Contignationes Ac Pontes' by Nicola Zabaglia, a treatise 'with some ingenious practices and with a description of the transportation of the Vatican obelisk, and others by the knight Domenico Fontana.' All artifacts are designed as 'bare' structures. Completely made of wood with thin sections dry-assembled and easily disassembled. The project is being completed in several phases.
The first phase, which has just been completed, involved the creation of two classrooms for safety training within workplaces housed inside the company headquarters. The new volume of classrooms is a 'sacellum'; a building for reflecting on work within a building for work. The building is positioned in a corner of the industrial hall to ensure ample free space on the ground for teaching activities and to make optimal use of the two existing perimeter walls. To better reflect its intended function as a scaffold, the structure is constructed entirely of wood with joists of the same section (80*120 mm) and panels (30 mm thick) assembled on-site. The parapets are constructed from wood and jute rope.
The pillars are constructed using two twin joists spaced by strips of plywood panels. The joists fit perfectly into the beams because they are designed with an 'I' cross-section and built to footing with an inertial core of plywood. The panels and joists are held together mechanically, without the use of glues, with (many) screws. The structural design, because of its experimental component, was followed by load tests on specimen beams made by the workers to verify the relevance of the calculations to the in-service strength of the elements and fasteners.
Although designed to be permanent, the absence of glued elements means that the artifact, consistent with the nature of the project, can be completely deconstructed and reassembled in another location and/or with another form in the future. Arch. Jimmi Pianezzola - project and work management Collaborator: Anna Grazia Capparotto Arpostudio srl - structural design and structural construction supervision Eng. Stefano Ravara - thermal engineer La bottega del legno - scaffolding and interior construction Marzola Impianti snc - thermohydraulic systems Zenith Sicurezza srl - electrical installation
