A building with two souls

A factory with a covered area of 12,000 sq.m in the Civita Castellana ceramic district in the province of Viterbo, with a third of its power derived from photovoltaics and with systems to reduce the environmental impact of its processes. In the lengthy curriculum of Scarabeo Ceramiche – the sanitaryware manufacturer established in 1974 – the most recent entry concerns the factory’s expansion by 2000 sq.m to house showrooms and additional office space. The design, by Chiara Soldateschi, covers the construction of a new two-floor extension to the existing building at Fabrica di Roma. The structure, with its layout of 13.95 m x 18.06 m, is integrated into the complex, even if in reality it is separated by a gap of ten centimetres to satisfy local earthquake safety legislation. The concept separates the functions architecturally (showroom on the ground floor and work space on the first). The fully glazed two-floor building, full of light, has been built on a 1.5 m basement, thus resolving the company’s need for a showroom and meeting area on the upper floor, with access via a steel stairway designed by the architect herself. There are two accesses, via the showroom or via the independent entrance connected to the offices in the old building, to the new work areas distributed around a central courtyard, equipped as a roof garden and covered by a glass skylight to ensure abundant natural lighting. The design plays with the contrast between the sense of lightness, reduction and transparency of the ground floor and the compactness, fullness and solidity of the upper floor. The designer has emphasised the importance of the envelope by using a ceramic cladding, in line with the company’s core business, using Aisthesis 0.3 panels from Panaria Ceramica, the Zero.3 Gres Laminato collection in the original cacao colour, cut to the 50×120 cm size to precisely cover the volume. The choice was driven by the versatility and functionality of these porcelain panels, made in the large 100×300 cm size with a thickness of 0.3 cm using Zero.3 technology. The resulting panels are lightweight, which facilitates installation, and the type of material makes it possible to make variable size modules, as well as design solution for a wide range of requirements. In this case the designer, Chiara Soldateschi, was looking for a way to add a touch of personality.