Nautica, the flagship store of the Hydrographic Institute of the Italian Navy in the heart of Genoa

Nautica: the new flagship store of the Hydrographic Institute of the Italian Navy ( Genoa_ Italy).

In the heart of Genoa, the new flagship store of the Hydrographic Institute of the Italian Navy is reborn: Nautica. The Hydrographic Institute of the Navy is the Government Agency that since 1872 has been producing nautical charts for navigation and safety at sea, whose highly specialized work is known both nationally and internationally. The shop is located in the port of Genoa near the waterfront of the Old Port, and is located inside the imposing Maritime Station of Ponte dei Mille,(once the landing place of the transatlantic liners and now of the gigantic cruise ships): a building in reinforced concrete 30s, subject to monumental and landscape constraint, with large underutilized spaces, it borders the grandiose silos granary reinforced concrete disused Hennebique (late ‘800).The restructuring of the new Nautica communicates high cultural, historical, educational, scientific and artistic values, aimed in particular at the new generations; the intent is to make known the production of the Institute consists of historical maps, nautical charts of current production, nautical instruments, scientific publications (eg. Portolani), and international research activities (eg. in Antarctica). The design challenge was to enhance the Nautical space by remodeling the existing space, a little more than 100 square meters, to insert in an organic and rational way more functions and recreate the visual connection on the Hennebique and the old port to the east and towards the square outside to the west. To allow immediate visibility to the store has been created a large interior window of 5 X 4. 5 meters as the original door is bound, this solution also allows high requirements for living comfort for visitors and employees. Appropriate internal demolitions (demolition of the old, incongruously positioned toilet), and the creation of new partitions have made it possible to reorganize the spaces and to enhance the sales space, giving the illusion of a space larger than reality, inserting alignments and perspective games in the preparation of precious materials. The shop - museum space is an installation that aims to strike the collective imagination thanks to ancient nautical instruments (ex. an astronomical theodolite), historical maps, copper plates or engraved matrices called “rami "; 50 examples between coastal views and nautical maps of the late ‘800, protected by a shell of plexiglass, LED panels with large photos (© Navy) of the ships school Amerigo Vespucci (the most beautiful ship in the world) and Palinuro, a luminous ceiling (1.5X3. 00 m.) that represents the enlarged map of the starry sky always produced by the Institute. In sequence, the Charts Room with drawers, chart tables and bookshelves, accompanied by images of historical reliefs and photos of the Institute's ancient printing works, the office with five workstations with custom-made furnishings, the archive and the service area whose plant engineering is perfectly integrated into the building. If necessary, the office can be separated from the other rooms by means of a large prototype screen-printed curtain with sliding panels representing the paper 294 of the Tremiti Islands and Pianosa 3th edition(©I.I.M.).