Pedrali Pavilion

To celebrate the company’s 60th anniversary, AMDL CIRCLE has created the Pedrali Pavilion, a temporary architecture at its headquarters in Mornico Al Serio, in the province of Bergamo. It is a broad roof standing on solid wooden “legs”, which hosts two exhibition levels within it, in which the exhibition “Pedrali60, we design a better future”, curated by Luca Molinari Studio, is to be held. A suspended gallery becomes the stage to tell the story of the company and a large portico on the ground floor hosts “The Forest of the Imagination”, an exhibition route for reflecting on the need to find a shared dimension in which to build the future.

The entire structure of the Pedrali Pavilion is made of wood, a material that embraces both the artisan tradition and innovation in production, reflecting the company’s fundamental values. The project satisfies its desire to create a temporary architecture, destined to have a second life, again inside the Pedrali Campus. The result is a study of all the construction elements based on prefabrication, to allow the optimization of realization times on one hand and the simplification of assembly and dismantling operations on the other. This choice has given rise to an exhibition architecture that is agile, functional and temporary, telling of the character of a company oriented towards continual renewal.

A roof with legs. The pavilion, with a rectangular plan, is shaped like a large vaulted roof supported by solid wooden legs, which declare the importance of creating temporary and nomadic architectures that are easily transferable, to preserve the integrity of the territory against new, often superfluous constructions. The main structure consists of arched portals, connected together by horizontal beams. On the upper level, a second framework of joists intersects with the extradoses to support the large roof made of larch shingles; this descends until it wraps around the flooring, made of fir panels. Both façades of the pavilion are open, allowing natural light to pour into the environment. On the ground floor, the exposed piers form the symbolic legs of the architecture and create a charming portico to host exhibition events. The access staircase: a grandstand to stop and meet. The raised exhibition floor is accessed by means of a wooden staircase with wide steps, which can be used as in an oldstyle auditorium. The staircase therefore fulfils two functions: it is the access point to the exhibition and a grandstand to stand or sit to participate in presentations and events. At the top of the steps there is a screen, which hosts the reception and conceals the view of the space, arousing curiosity about what is being staged beyond.

The suspended gallery and the “Pedrali60, we design a better future” exhibition. The visitors’ itinerary begins beyond the screen, in the gallery suspended between the arches. The large space has no auxiliary structural elements or dividing partitions, thereby guaranteeing the flexibility necessary for the preparation of an exhibition. For the first part of the “Pedrali60, we design a better future” exhibition, AMDL CIRCLE has designed two long wooden display elements, each 20 metres long, which guide visitors through a linear story and act as two-sided supports: on one hand the products, the tools, the catalogues and the images representing the Pedrali world are displayed, which the monitors for the multimedia content are hosted on the other. The wooden pedestals, between the arched portals, showcase the most iconic design items, revealing the company’s mastery and production capacity. On the raised floor, the route is completed with the open frontage at the back of the gallery, creating an invitation to look ahead, towards the outdoor world and the future. You go down a second staircase to the portico on the ground floor, where the “Pedrali60, we design a better future” exhibition continues with “The Forest of the Imagination”.

The portico as a place of socialization. The portico on the ground floor is an intermediate space between the interior and the exterior, inspired by the ancient loggias of public buildings; it was once the hub of civil life in the towns of Northern Italy, to provide visitors with a place to walk, interact and spend time, sheltered from the elements. The space hosts the second part of the exhibition “The Forest of the Imagination” – a forest of mirrors interspersed with panels with portraits of the people of the Pedrali community.

Wood: the material responsible for the entire project. The decision to create a pavilion made entirely of wood, from the structure to the roof, declares the need to design sustainably, as far as possible harmonizing the construction with nature. Wood is also the most suitable material to express the concept of temporariness in architecture: in its process of transformation, oxidation and cracking, it acquires a character that enriches its emotive value, testifying to the flow of life itself. In the Pedrali Pavilion, AMDL CIRCLE has married the architecture project with the potential of an artistic installation, creating a scenographic and temporary space, capable of offering a new perspective on the relationship between individuals, community and the world surrounding them, combining the fascination of the past with enthusiasm for the future.