Forum Fondazione Bertarelli | Edoardo Milesi & Archos

The Forum Fondazione Bertarelli originates from a thorough study of the settlement models in the inland of the Maremma plains. This 300-seat concert hall has an organic shape, perfectly self-contained and within the golden ratio, whose proportions were designed for non-mechanical acoustic amplification. From a distance as well as from close range, the Forum is not perceived as a building. Being free of openings, its rugged concrete surface with the earth tones of cement is reminiscent of a mound and fortified by wavy oxidised iron plate, which it partially envelops. Going uphill through an olive grove along the iron wall supporting the volume of the hall, we enter the foyer, one dematerialized space flooded by light where the outside landscape is again visible through a glass wall. The music hall can be seen with a single glance from above with the unique surface of the drum-shaped element on which rests the curved wings of the roof that laterally embrace the galleries and conceal the links to the various levels.