LOCARNO CINEMA BLD | Morena Architects

ARCH. FRANCESCO MORENA

DESCRIPTION: This competition involved the design for redevelopment of the building where the Locarno Cinema Festival takes place.
Due to the location and visibility of the site, the part of the new building that faces the public space takes on great urban importance and high iconic value for Locarno. We therefore chose to make a decisive gesture in the general architectural composition, which, although its precise component is serial prefabrication, wants to give a very clear image to the new port of the city. The decision to assemble the main frame carrying components in the workshop enabled extreme reduction of the construction and the limited inconvenience to the township, given its proximity to the center. The project focuses on the prefabrication of hexagonal shapes, but also on the versatility of the environment and on saving energy. The basic philosophy is to consider the building as a series of boxes which act as "heat exchangers" with respect to climatic conditions. The passive solidity of the casing allows the building to “breath” at the same time by opening windows to obtain optimal energy balance.