Pure White Volume on Paving Stones, Reflecting the Historical Charm of Ancient Town
Bressanone is the oldest town in South Tyrol, Italy, with its cobblestone streets and historic buildings, exuding an atmosphere of elegance and tranquility. Designed by the Italian team MoDus Architects, the tourism information center presents itself as a wave of pure white organic architecture, standing outside the town's medieval walls and utilizing its sculptural, dynamic space imagery to welcome visitors.
Like a sculpture's pure white volume, the building's flowing, crisp lines interpret it gracefully embedding itself into the historic town.
The clear glass used beneath the building creates a sense of lightness and permeability, seemingly supporting the massive concrete volume.
This tourism information center, named 'TreeHugger,' is aptly named, standing on the square, embracing the lush street trees, as if extending its arms to surround them. Despite the heavy concrete structure and its rough, weathered appearance, which exudes a wild, unrestrained style, MoDus Architects skillfully uses fluid, winding curves, coupled with the lightness created by large expanses of glass windows, miraculously lightening the weight of this white concrete building and freeing it from a somber feeling.
The building's layout intentionally forms an open-air courtyard, enveloping the original street trees.
Continuous glass windows bring the streetscape into the interior.
Due to the location of the tourism information center, which is adjacent to the bishop's residence built in the 13th century – a major tourist attraction known for its Renaissance-style courtyard and luxurious Baroque interior decoration – the team conceived of creating an open-space triangular profile on the site, and enveloping a tree standing tall on the ground within the building.
The curved walls soften the weight of the concrete building and create a sense of visual interest.
The building team utilizes the courtyard to allow the new design to respond to the surrounding famous bishop's residence attraction.
Contemplating the entire pure white volume and its relationship to the surrounding landscape, from its high-low variations in lines, architectural openings, and facade layers, every vocabulary is intricately metaphorical, hinting at a sentiment and response to the site.
For example, the curved wall echoes the onion-domed buildings in the nearby area, while the tree enveloping the courtyard is reminiscent of the rows of trees on the south side of the square, accompanied by the pristine white facade, allowing the swaying shadows of the trees to be vividly embossed upon it. Moreover, the arched support structure of the building is also a response to the arched galleries on both sides of the street, while the organic, flowing lines are inspired by Chinese and Japanese pavilions.
The curved contour of the building echoes the distant onion-domed building.
The interior space of the tourism information center, arched floor-to-ceiling windows, enhances the openness of the space.
