On a surface of about 7,000 square meters, in the Roveri area, Paolo Castelli S.p.A has set up the headquarters of the non-profit foundation, the educational and innovation center along with exhibition and archive center dedicated to the fashion industry.
The access is characterized by a building with “Palladian” forms, surmounted by a classic pediment (with clock). The bar / cafeteria and ancillary services for the activities of the Foundation are housed here. From this part of the cantilever roof, that serves as a virtual walkway: characterized by 8 large screens placed vertically, for the reproduction of virtual life-size parades.
The central building – the former building combined with the pre-existing mechanical workshop – was instead demolished and rebuilt from scratch. Developed into protruding semi-circular body. (The auditorium) and two rectangular bodies on each of the two sides: it has a hall on the ground floor; the training and research spaces on the lower and upper floors. Total of 2,000 square meters of surface. The non-cylindrical portion of the façade is covered with krion panels (Aluminum based material mixed with resins) which tend to recall the weave of a fabric in their intertwining. In collaboration with the University of Bologna, masters and courses in Architecture for fashion will be held in the venue, in addition to the school in Fashion Archives.
The office building, with shapes that recall the stables-barns typical of the Emilia plains (eighteenth-century model of the Dotti), has kept the outer form and was internally modernized. It welcomes inside the statue of iridescent light in the form of a woman, the result of the assembly, within white spheres, of well 21.120 LEDs. The spaces include the offices, an archive (with a collection of 20,000 drawings on paper and fabric, mainly textures but also drawings by great Italian designers) and the library named after Renzo Brandone (5,000 books); the remaining part, about 3,000 square meters, are used as exhibition space with 3,000 square meters of green spaces.