Catania, Italy
Scannella Architects is based in Catania and avails itself of a team of architects and engineers, the group has an extensive experience in the design with particular attention to architectural, urban, landscape, interior, restoration issues. This is the model which allows ourselves to work in synergy, in order to share challenges and solutions, and to comply with market, customers and territory requests.
The studio excels, for many years, in the fields of architecture, design and innovative technologies for energy saving. The professional experience ranges from residential projects, museums and places of culture, convention centres, office buildings, as well as in interior.They completed over 200 projects, receiving a variety of national and international awards. Thanks to all past experiences, their professional challenge want to gain a large-scale effort developing knowledge concerning innovation, integration and experimentation.
Interview in italian language:
“Radice Pura” project
The studio focused on the restoration, the re-use of historic buildings and provided the coordination and the Master Plan of the entire settlement. Several operations were taken into account, aiming at the realization of a private botanical garden. And including also the urban aspects. The task was to harmonize the interventions in terms of aesthetic and functional fittings and of urban planning feasibility. By a formal point of view it was necessary to ensure the link between the various parts, each one assigned to a different studio. The outside, even if designed by different people, was aimed at identifying a system of relationships, resulting in an inner “landscape”, able to provide different and coordinated atmospheres and sensations. Regarding the restoration of the historic building (end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th century), the new destination posed the question of the relationship between the new functions and the maintenance of its peculiarities, considered “values”.
Through a critical analysis of structural and decorative elements, the project outlined the original elements re-interpreting and re-using them in a contemporary way, like the railing of the new staircase and the sailing connection between the different parts of the building. The oldest part, hosting the winery and the cellar, was restored preserving the original elements (such us the decantation tanks and the piping system) highlighted by sheets of glass which make the functional system visible. The outdoor courtyard has a gravel and washed concrete paving enclosed in large boxes with Comiso stone slabs framework. The paving is highlighted by the lighting system, which is in almost invisible but creates scenery suggestions with a clear light setting. The original access was maintained and for the two new ones two corten-steel gates were made constituted by using a double metal sheet, which was laser cut according to a pattern of “branches” intertwined together; the twines of the branches are realized by placing at gaps the metal sheets.
SCANNELLA ARCHITECTS has presented Radice Pura in the exhibition “Light = Emotions” 2017 and Duomo Suites & SPA in the exhibition “Interior Design” 2018
