GRUPPOFON ARCHITETTI - The Fincantieri factory in Porto Marghera: the new Naval Arsenal of Venice
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The Fincantieri factory in Porto Marghera: the new Naval Arsenal of Venice

GRUPPOFON ARCHITETTI

Production  /  Completed
GRUPPOFON ARCHITETTI
AMPLIAMENTO OFFICINA NAVALE - FINCANTIERI PORTO MARGHERA

THE ARCHITECTURE OF A NAVAL ARSENAL
Thanks to their organization, the Naval Arsenals anticipated the modern concept of factory by a few centuries, intended as a production complex in which specialized workers perform the individual assembly operations of an artifact in succession along an assembly line.
The shipyard of Venice represents the most important example of a large production complex with a centralized structure of the pre-industrial economy.
With the responsibility of this legacy, we have faced this project, in what is in fact the new Naval Arsenal of Venice, the Fincantieri factory in Porto Marghera.

FINCANTIERI AND THE MACHINE-BUILDINGS
Fincantieri builds ship!
This is the first thing the costumer communicated us.
The meaning of this statement it’s simple and real, inside the establishment the buildings are machines used for the construction of the ships.
Machine-Buildings that perhaps by their nature become unequivocally Architectures, as the historical legacy of the Venice Arsenal taught us.
In an Arsenal there are basically three places/moments for the construction of a Ship:
the Naval Workshop where the sheets are cut, the Dry-Dock where they are assembled until they become a hull to be launched into the water and the Quay where the Ship is set up and finished, ready to sail.

A PROJECT FOR PRODUCTION FLOW EFFICIENCY
In sequence, the phases of the production flow are: Naval Workshop - Large Prefabrication Yard - Gantry Crane - Arm Crane - Dry Dock - Launch - Quay.
The expansion of the Naval Workshop was created with the aim of satisfy the new production, in particular that of cutting and assembling the hull. This with a different and innovative way of making the "hull blocks", directly made and composed on the ground rather than in the basin. Synergistic to the Naval Workshop was the redefinition of the Large Prefabrication Square.
The blocks are assembled on the ground in large sections, and then they are transported to the construction basin, thanks to a new Gantry Crane with a capacity of 800 tons. These are then taken over by 2.400-ton cranes, the speed of the hull production is significantly speeding up.
All this involved the redefinition of an area of approximately 44,000 sqm, of which 7,800 sqm dedicated to the expansion of the Naval Workshop and the remainder dedicated to the Large Prefabrication Square where the Gantry Crane runs, with a gauge of 162 m and a height of about 100 m, called "Goliath".

THE CONTENT of the NAVAL WORKSHOP
The expansion of the Naval Workshop on the North-West side of the plant was built to contain the initial part of the new "Panel Line".
It’s important to consider that this new portion of the Naval Workshop is part of a large production line (cutting and assembly chain) with a length of about 1 km.
An automatic production line with stations for:
- assemble the sheet metal panels by milling and welding;
- laser cutting on the panels for the execution of the openings;
- laying of the “bulbi” stiffening profiles and of the “anguille” supporting beams;
- laying of the secondary beams of the “bagli” panel;
- robotic welding of everything.
Therefore, an high technology and value content, where precision laser cutting machines guarantee the fluidity of a complex production process that requires large spaces.

ONLY SEEMING A SIMPLE ARCHITECTURE
The building, composed only by the ground floor, has rectangular dimensions of 145 m x 58 m, with a height of 22 m, is composed of: - reticular columns, made with four standard vertical HE profiles of 2.70 x1.20 m, completed by transoms horizontal and diagonal, arranged at variable center distances 10.60 - 12.00 - 24.00 m to meet the various needs of the entrances;
- reticular trusses consisting of four HE profiles forming a rectangular section of 1.20 m with variable height 2.30 - 4.20 m, completed with vertical and diagonal crosspieces;
- roofing purlins and façade barracks, made with 350 x 250 x 6 mm tubular profiles to support the insulating sandwich panels.
At an altitude of 11.40 m there is a runway supporting two overhead cranes: one with a 20 ton hook and one with a 19 ton magnetic traverse.
Along the longer sides of the wall 2+2 "Sant’Andrea" braced elements have been created.
All assembled with an infinity of construction details, a real Architectural Abacus of Structural Metal Structures.

THE INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE AND THE SEA
Beyond the "Machine Building", the suggestion of the port, the water, the sea.
The beauty of a Naval Arsenal is in the industrial landscape of the cranes, in the large colorful buildings, in the signs, colors always in motion, visible in the distance just like ships.
Porto Marghera is the Venice skyline and the industrial landscape of Mestre.
The beauty of the sea is in the colors and in the light its reflects, light that becomes colors in motion.
Sequences of blues, light blues, greens and grays. These colors, used in an extremely sober way, recall what only a little later will become the horizon of Venice or the Lagoon and then the Mediterranean.
In our Architectures the composition of colors (in this case in the facade panels) always subtends numbers and musical notes. Three octaves 7+7+7 up to the beginning of the upper octave 22, two semitones missing between "E and F" and between "B and C" (natural ventilation openings).
In this project, nothing is there by chance.

THE SITE
The construction of the building took place without this having led to a halt in the construction of the Ships. A kind of project within the design of the production process, this is also a Naval Arsenal.

Credits

 PORTO MARGHERA - VENEZIA
 ITALIA
 FINCANTIERI S.p.A.
 05/2021
 7800 mq
 GRUPPOFON ARCHITETTI
 NICOLA SALVIATO - OSCAR SCOMPARIN - DAVIDE DELLA PORTA - SILVIA MARINOTTO
 STRUTTURE: T14 ASSOCIATI - IMPIANTI: SINT INGEGNERIA s.r.l - PROGETTAZIONE IDRAULICA E AMBIENTALE: PLANUM s.r.l
 FOTOGRAFA ALESSANDRA BELLO - ARCHIVIO DOCUMENTALE FON

Curriculum

GRUPPOFONARCHITETTI was founded in 1988 as a container of multidisciplinary experiences, it’s composed of dozens experts, some of them are performing in University activities. During its 32 years of activity the firm has developed in: historical architecture, bio- architecture, Urban and territory regeneration and completed several buildings construction. Attention is dedicated to the use of wood technology.
Part of the firm is developing commercial formats for food&beverage company and completed over 240 projects in 4 Continents, 18 Countries and 70 Cities. Awards, mentions and exhibitions: Premio Architettura Città di Venezia 2005-2008-2014; Premio Nazionale di Architettura Sirica 2010; European Colour Design Award 2011; Ri.U.SO 2012; The Plan Award 2015-2016-2017-2019; Biennale di Venezia 2018, Premio Architettura Città di Oderzo 2019. With FONOLTRE the office develops projects and investigations, pointing the way to awareness and methodology for built and farming areas re-use.

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