UDWR 1K | David Marchiori

Underground concrete opera designed to contain 1000 cubic meters of drinking water and meet the water needs of a small alpine valley, in the Province of Trento, Italy.

The form of the building arises from the need to fit into a natural context, at the limits of the alpine “cultural”landscape, limiting the environmental impact to a minimum but nevertheless leaving, through the particular form of the entrance, a trace of its presence in the area, for the benefit of the observer, so that he can participate in what is happening in his own territory.

The building, completely underground, consists of two large cylindrical tanks that act as reservoires, covered by a large semi-cylindrical vault in reinforced concrete, supported by two series of columns resting on the edge of the tanks.

The interior has a sacred flavor, completely covered with white resin from the floor to the ceiling, it looks like a water temple.

Above the roof there is a green lawn, where you can enjoy a splendid view of the surrounding mountains: the Brenta Group and the Adamello-Presanella Group.

The entrance is a gallery. An elliptical section gallery with a shaped, crooked, organic, slippery entrance: such as to recall ice, like what you see on the horizon on the mountains, the natural reserve of fresh water par excellence.

The entrance leads into a floor, with the edge of the tub at a man's chest level, and the columns from chest up, a large concrete staircase leads to the lower floor, which acts as a control room from which the drinking water delivery pipes depart.

For each design element, an attempt was made to find a union between form and function. For example, the curved roof connects very well with the sinuous surrounding slope and at the same time inside allows the flow of evaporated and condensed water, and again for example, the entrance of the access tunnel, on one side has a thickness and a shape that contains the building's covering ground, on the other it stands as a distinguishable and identifying element of the presence of the building.

Water is a source of life for the human being, it is an entity loved by man, therefore the design of the tunnel entrance stems from the desire to create an element that creates a feeling of empathy with the observer.

The design arises from the observation of water in its solid form, ice, of the shapes it can generate. Through an abstraction process and therefore geometric reproposition with an intersection game of rotation solids.

Material Used :
1. Onorati S.r.l. - Concrete supplier
2. Arbloc - formwork supplier 

Progetto e direzione lavori Ing. David Marchiori

Appaltatore Pavoni S.p.a.

Subappaltatore Impresa costruzioni Salvadori Felice (www.salvadorifelice.it)

Foto: Samuele Guetti Fish (www.instagram.com/f_i_s_h_87)