ROSIGNANO MARITTIMO CULTURAL CENTRE

One of the first public buildings in Italy that makes use of the straw-bales technology, furthermore keeping the construction cost on the average of Italian public buildings and strongly lowering the operation cost.

The Rosignano Marittimo Cultural Centre is a sustainable building where users can find not only library services, but also comfort and integration between architectural and technological features: the adoption of passive strategies improves the energy performance of the building and has come to strongly differentiate the appearance.
The library is conceived as a symbol of knowledge, of awareness, of broad-mindedness, of the intelligent fruition of resources; a sort of monument to sustainability and to environmental respect, that takes shape in the laminated timber structure, the straw-bale walls, the use of natural ventilation systems.

The project was presented at the World Sustainability Building Conference, held in Helsinki from 18 to 21 October 2011.

The building received the Toscana Ecoefficiente 2012 Award 1st prize in the “Sustainable building and living” category  and a Honorary Mention at MEA2013 - Mediterranean Sustainable Architecture International Design Competition.