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Designed by architect Mario Cucinella and his studio, MCA-Mario Cucinella Architects, Casa della Musica, in Pieve di Cento, Bologna, is a place to be transported by music, a sign of rebirth, and a symbol of the age-old local tradition of violin making. It was co-winner of the first prize in the 2022 POROTON® Award. The structure, home to the music department of a local middle school and the Pievese Modern Music Club, is one of five local projects taken on by the studio after the 2012 earthquake in Emilia. Funding to the tune of over seven million euros was provided by Trust Nuova Polis, a reconstruction fund set up by national industry associations and trade unions.
Like the other four projects, Cucinella describes Casa della Musica as a “little gem” that “responds to the needs of the community while enriching the local area.” He goes on to say, “Following the disastrous earthquakes that hit this area and Central Italy, we owe these communities our best creative efforts.”
© Moreno Maggi, courtesy of Consorzio POROTON®
As the name suggests, Casa della Musica provides facilities for music in Pieve di Cento, ranging from the school to a modern music club. From the outset, therefore, the structure symbolized post-earthquake reconstruction as a meeting place for young people and the entire community. It comprises nine small music rooms. Each one is circular and connected to the others by a plaza that acts as a circulation space. As the place where young musicians come together and interact, the plaza symbolizes connectedness, while also providing a rehearsal space for ensembles and small recitals.
Since it’s open all hours, Casa della Musica is also a meeting place for the community. Exterior lighting makes it look like a beacon and a point of reference at night, inviting people to return to music and leisure activities after the earthquake.
And it’s music, the violin-making tradition of Pieve di Cento, and the soul of the instruments themselves that provided the inspiration for the defining elements of the project. Made up of different autonomous elements, the structure is a reference to the orchestra, with each element representing an individual instrument but all of them working together to create the final result.
This reference to instruments continues with the oak paneling, which wraps around the structures inside and out, both containing and amplifying the sound like an instrument’s sound box.
© Moreno Maggi, courtesy of Consorzio POROTON®
POROTON® masonry played a key role in this architecturally innovative yet welcoming and familiar project, creating curved, flexible shapes in a structure with high seismic, thermal, and acoustic performance.
Comprising intersecting cylindrical volumes, the structure uses POROTON® load-bearing masonry. The architects opted for this product to achieve structural strength, high thermal inertia, and acoustic insulation adequate for the multifunctional nature of the facility. POROTON® blocks made it possible to create the curving walls that characterize the project.
Curved oak slats on both the outside and inside of the ventilated façades provide high energy performance while referencing the wooden sound box of instruments. Inside the classrooms, the wall paneling is magnesite-bonded wood.The design team paid special attention to the acoustics, opting for materials and strategies for reducing reverberation. Finally, the project involved optimizing passive strategies to achieve an energy performance rating of A.
“The reconstruction of Emilia-Romagna,” continued Mario Cucinella, “shows how the strength of a community can be reflected in its new architecture, in this case, in its schools. This was what needed to be done, and it will continue to be done. From the devastation, we need to rebuild better, more carefully, and without compromising on seismic or environmental safety. Quality architecture promotes important values, such as beauty, design, ecology, environmental quality, innovation, and sustainability, while contributing to local areas by creating new interpretations of the landscape.”
Location: Pieve di Cento, Bologna, Italy
Architect: MCA-Mario Cucinalla Architects
Client: Comune di Pieve di Cento
Structures: Sarti Ingegneria
Photography by Moreno Maggi, courtesy of Consorzio POROTON®
