Claudio Nardi

By Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi - 7 January 2010

After graduating from Florence in the late Seventies, like many a young architect Claudio Nardi spent his time to begin with designing interiors. He worked with Puccio Duni and got to know Carlo Scarpa and Dino Gavina, both influences on him – though anyone hunting for Nardi references to the Venetian master would be in for a disappointment. “What I assimilated from Scarpa was a sense of detail and a direct contact with craftsmanship. But then I took off in quite other directions.” He was drawn to modernist tastes with something minimalist about them, and that opened doors to close collaboration with the world of fashion. In the Eighties and Nineties many of his designs found outlet in Tod’s, Iceberg, Malo, Extè, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferré and Valentino.
The recently finished main premises of the Marina di Carrara Port Authorities (2007) are conceived as an impeccable showroom. The building owes something to shop refurbishing technique, relating to the surrounding streets via large window apertures. A permeable quality, even, which removes the inside/outside dichotomy and welcomes the public into Port Authority reception - or Customs and Civil Engineering, the other two offices sharing the premises.
The building hugs the ground like some kind of bearing slab. Only on two sides does it rise to three storeys. One is occupied by offices, the other by an outsize gateway. The rest of the “slab” roof is a raised piazza looking over the surrounding countryside. Ecological themes are provided by a pond and by wooden slatted flooring. The gateway from the outside is intended to stand as a town landmark; seen from the hanging piazza, it forms a window framing the Apuan Alps. The pond is designed to improve the sense of well-being in summer and is an arresting visual feature for the offices that command it.
As perfect as a well-tailored suit, the construction plays on a few quality materials: wood, glass, pale sandstone cladding. Vaguely the architecture seems...