Fabrica Research Centre | Tadao Ando Architect & Associates

As in Ando’s first European commission - started in 1992 - the headquarters of Fabrica is a creative research centre located located near Treviso, in an old villa wonderfully restored and planned by Tadao Ando. 

So the plan for Fabrica came to Tadao Ando spontaneously. There was, in fact, a seventeenth-century villa and several outbuildings already on the site. To allow the scenery and the memory of the environment to continue to flourish, and to restore the existing building and give it new life, the Japanese architect planned most of the new installation underground so as to highlight the beauty of the landscape. However, uniting the architecture of the past and that of the present does not simply mean representing the two extremes. He restored the ancient architecture respecting its character, so that the history it embodies will stay alive; at the same time the new area can respond to this history in its own, equally unique, way.

Ando created the laboratories, offices and a helicoidal library around an elliptical, porticoed square positioned approximately ten meters below the natural ground level which is accessed by a broad staircase.

Visiting Fabrica you can find architecture of the past and the present; the two put their trust in, and draw inspiration from, each other. The role of the new architecture is to bring out the charm and strength of the ancient villa and to give birth to a reciprocal, cathartic relationship between old and new in an atmosphere of complete harmony, transcending the limits of a specific period. 

The original part of the villa, the “barchessa” buildings (long porticoed wings typical of Veneto villas) which now house laboratories and an auditorium, was renovated with philological attention both in the choice of materials as well as construction techniques: antique brickwork and marble nishings, Palladian-style and wooden ooring.

A series of 12-metre high columns in monolithic architectural concrete crosses the space and is reected in the water: a veritable architectural quest which unites the dictates of Ando’s work to those of the traditional culture of the Veneto villa.

"People involved in building should have a vision of the overall plan, not just of their individual job, if the best results are to be achieved. When I saw the people working on the Fabrica construction site I was highly stimulated; their passion for “building”, in the broadest sense of the word, particularly impressed me. When I talked to them I realized that they had understood my, and the client’s, vision and that they could visualize both the overall project and the role of each individual. They are proud of what they build, therefore they put passion into their work." (Tadao Ando)

Ando noted that, in turn, his work at Fabrica led him to other projects, such as the restoration of the Punta della Dogana art museum in Venice, financed by French collector François Pinault.

BIO:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3579935/Alchemist-of-the-rising-sun.html

https://www.architectours.it/fabrica-treviso-tadao-ando/

https://www.efe.com/efe/english/life/tadao-ando-75-years-in-search-of-light/50000263-3037797