“La Pergola” Civic Center
Regenerating spaces, communities and landscapes.
We believe that every project should tell a story. Our architectures are never just spaces: they are messages, emotions and deep connections with places and people. In Santa Sofia, in the heart of the Tuscan-Romagnolo Apennines and at the gateway to the Foreste Casentinesi National Park, “La Pergola” area has represented a social hub for decades, an identity-defining place capable of preserving collective memories and uniting generations.
The redevelopment project of the former restaurant, currently in a state of partial abandonment, stems from the desire not to lose this value, transforming it into a new civic, cultural and recreational center. It is not a simple building intervention, but an urban regeneration device designed to mend the fractures of the territory and return an open, inclusive and flexible space to the community. Architecture thus becomes an instrument of care, capable of strengthening the bonds between the community, the nearby educational and sports complex and the natural landscape. The new building traces the original footprint, reinterpreting it in a contemporary key. It fits into the landscape with a compact and horizontal volume that follows the naturally sloping orography of the plot, engaging in a silent dialogue with the woodland profile behind it. The generating element of the project is the roof: a dynamic double-pitched plane that converges towards a central valley. Towards the south, the pitch extends into a wide overhang, becoming a true “suspended sail” with strong formal expressiveness. This large canopy, enhanced by the warmth of the glulam soffit, generates a filter zone that provides shade, welcomes and expands the internal space towards the public square, emphasizing the civic vocation of the structure.
We believe that every project should tell a story. Our architectures are never just spaces: they are messages, emotions and deep connections with places and people. In Santa Sofia, in the heart of the Tuscan-Romagnolo Apennines and at the gateway to the Foreste Casentinesi National Park, “La Pergola” area has represented a social hub for decades, an identity-defining place capable of preserving collective memories and uniting generations.
The redevelopment project of the former restaurant, currently in a state of partial abandonment, stems from the desire not to lose this value, transforming it into a new civic, cultural and recreational center. It is not a simple building intervention, but an urban regeneration device designed to mend the fractures of the territory and return an open, inclusive and flexible space to the community. Architecture thus becomes an instrument of care, capable of strengthening the bonds between the community, the nearby educational and sports complex and the natural landscape. The new building traces the original footprint, reinterpreting it in a contemporary key. It fits into the landscape with a compact and horizontal volume that follows the naturally sloping orography of the plot, engaging in a silent dialogue with the woodland profile behind it. The generating element of the project is the roof: a dynamic double-pitched plane that converges towards a central valley. Towards the south, the pitch extends into a wide overhang, becoming a true “suspended sail” with strong formal expressiveness. This large canopy, enhanced by the warmth of the glulam soffit, generates a filter zone that provides shade, welcomes and expands the internal space towards the public square, emphasizing the civic vocation of the structure.
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IMPACTS
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) investigates architecture across its entire temporal span. Through GWP, the climatic weight of the project is measured, while Embodied Carbon quantifies its invisible impact: the latent emissions rooted in the life cycle of matter, from its genesis to its dissolution. These parameters mark a crucial evolution in design thinking. The focus shifts from the mere operation of the inhabited building to the very act of building itself, imposing a new ethics of materials that recognizes how architecture’s most profound imprint is forged long before the space is ever experienced.
¹ Life Cycle Assessment in accordance with the EN 15804 +A2 standard
² Calculated over a 60-year period for construction materials only (excluding MEP) from cradle to grave (A1-A4, B4-B5, C1-C4)
The boundary between inside and outside thins until it dissolves, thanks to an envelope that alternates absolute transparencies with tactile materiality. The south facade is dematerialized by large continuous windows (curtain walls), designed to open almost completely during the warmer months, flooding the rooms with natural light and allowing maximum osmosis with the outside. The opaque portions, on the other hand, are clad in a ventilated facade made of vertically ribbed ecological fiber cement panels: a texture that establishes a chromatic dialogue with the colors of nature and evokes, sublimating it through a contemporary language, the memory of the original building’s exposed concrete. The interiors of “La Pergola” are designed to ensure maximum adaptability to the needs of a community on the move. Two large multipurpose rooms and a refreshment area, which can be fluidly reconfigured using movable partitions, are ready to host thematic workshops, cultural events, coworking spaces and extracurricular activities, operating in perfect synergy with the adjacent educational and sports complex.
Dreaming of a better world is not enough: we must build it. Every one of our projects is an act of love towards the planet. The intervention radically embraces the principles of sustainability and bioclimatic design. From the discreet integration of a photovoltaic system into the roof design, to the adoption of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) for the virtuous management of rainwater, up to the use of materials compliant with Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM), the intervention fully embraces the Life Cycle Thinking approach. It is a work that combines aesthetic measure, material innovation, urban sensitivity and human value. More than a simple building intervention, it represents a replicable model: a project that demonstrates how, even on a local scale, architecture can become an instrument of care, inclusion and innovation, giving back to the city not just a building, but a true place of community.
