ALT! Architettura Legno Territorio | archMaDe

Contemporary Architecture and Contemporary Art joined by a material, wood, and a common region, the Alps.

This is the subject of ALT! (Italian acronym of Architecture, Wood and Territory), the installation architectural-artistical performed in Agordo last May.

The setting of Palazzo Crotta de’ Manzoni, rich of a deep architectural and artistic heritage is, in our opinion, the best place to restart a conversation on the state of architecture and contemporary art in the alpine region.

Inside the entrance hall at the ground floor has been made an installation where wood is the main element: two large volumes have welcomed some images of architectures from the archMaDe Studio and some statues from the sculptor Matthias Sieff.

The event itself is a meeting of two friends with the same age, an architect and an artist that try in their working fields to give a contemporary reading to the strong cultural roots of the mountain valleys in which they operate and live.

To fill the space, we find two parallelepipeds made by fir wood beams with commercial section 10×8 cm and lenght 2,1 and 4,1 m placed one above the other according to the construction technique of block bau.

No nail or fixing screw has been used for the placing: the material must have been reused in the carpentry. For this reason, ratchet belts stretched in the corners of the volumes have been used to give cohesion for attrition to the structure.

The starting idea of the project are the “tabià”, barns typical of the dolomitic region, but also a sustainable consciousness that recognizes in the installation a strong will to use elements not only recyclable but also reusable.

This philosophy of minimal ecologic impression has been coherent in each element of the project, going also over till the lighting of the spaces, made with building site headlights and industrial ceilings.

Translation by Giovanni Cattaneo