Technical Centre of the Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna, Casalecchio di Reno
Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna
Windows: metal
Façade: prefab concrete panels
Roof: flat roof (unusable), with copper sheeting; skylight
Load-bearing structure: beams and piers in reinforced concrete
The project of the Technical Centre in Casalecchio di Reno was part of a collaboration agreement between Magistretti and Austin Italia, the company for which he had already designed the school in San Daniele del Friuli and the Cavagnari Centre in Parma.
Commissioned by the Cassa di Risparmio di Parma, it involved the restructuring and enlargement of an industrial building owned by Alfa Romeo, and retained in the project: a big warehouse with a modular reinforced concrete structure and sawtooth skylights, and two adjacent linear blocks (multiple floors) servicing the activities of the centre.
The screening system in the new buildings was created using copper grilles anchored to the façade and designed based on a quadrangular mesh. To provide natural light to the free plan offices five patios were created by demolishing parts of the horizontal building of the old automotive factory.
G. P. Boetti, Perché il liceo classico produce i creativi, in La Stampa, 04 aprile 1986
R. Roda, Tecnocentri bancari, in Modulo 156, novembre 1989
Austin Italia: nasce il Gruppo BM, in Modulo 174, settembre 1991
G. Chigiotti, La regola e l'eccezione, in Area 11, settembre 1992
Il Tecnocentro della Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna, Bologna 1987
E. Biagi, M. Magnani, Il Tecnocentro, Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna, in Frames 38, 1993, pp. 48-55
F. Irace, V. Pasca, Vico Magistretti, architetto e designer, Milano 1999, pp. 98-99
