Elastico Farm has designed a lab building of interlocking pink concrete planes for the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Turin, Italy.

Buildings.

Building on the aesthetics and techniques developed by Elastico Farm in its experimental House of Cards scheme, which explores the structural possibilities of granite, the lab is made up from panels of interlocking pink-pigmented concrete.

The concrete planes vary in tone and are paired with panels of blackened aluminium and translucent polycarbonate to give a patch-work appearance. Some panels overshoot the facade at corners of the S-LAB building, creating fins that shade windows and doors, and playfully breaking down the traditional boxy warehouse typology.

Ampetheatre

“The project adopts the traditional construction technology for manufacturing buildings and, by reinterpreting it, avoids the repetition of the typical image of industrial warehouses,” says the practice, which was set up by Stefano Pujatti, Alberto Del Maschio and Sara dal Gallo in 2005.

“The deconstruction of volumes is emphasised by the use of reinforced concrete infill panels of different colours which protrude beyond the boundaries of the building. Some of the concrete panels conceal a message that only reveals itself under certain precise conditions of air humidity; an experiment, on the skin of a building created for experimentation.”

These “hidden messages” – the letters INFN to spell out the name of the institute – are only revealed in the concrete panels under particular environmental conditions.

Ampetheatre

The 1,776-square-metre laboratory building for the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) is located within the grounds of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council) and set in the centre of a 7,500-square-metre plot so as to allow its future expansion. A glass corridor connects the building – which contains a mixture of spaces used as laboratories, offices and a large workshop interspersed with courtyards and patios – to an existing low-lying office block.

More images and drawings

Credits

Architect
Elastico Farm
Design team
Stefano Pujatti, Alberto Del Maschio, Valeria Brero, Serena Nano, Daniele Almondo, Andrea Rosada, Monica Ierace
Client
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Structural engineering
Arching Srl

Mechanical engineering
Projema Engineering Srl
Construction
Ruscalla Renato Spa
Prefabricator
Alciati Srl
Installation
Paolin Impianti Srl