The Song of the Stones
In 2017, the Ticino State Council decided to move the Cantonal Natural History Museum from its current location in Lugano to the former Catharine Convent in Locarno. A subsequent competition aimed to ensure the harmonious integration of the new museum into the valuable and protected context of the compartment. The project with the poetic title “IL CANTO DELLE PIETRE” succeeded best in this, according to the jury: “In its entirety, the project is an intelligent and elegant intervention that fully exploits the potential of the site and respects its peculiarities and exceptional qualities.” The team around BUZZI studio d’architettura and :mlzd Architekten, which included the structural engineers from Lüchinger+Meyer, was awarded first place.
Fernand Pouillon’s novel “Les pierres sauvages” provided the title and explicitly determined the design idea. In this diary novel, the French architect and urban planner traces with the extraordinary biography the construction of the Cistercian monastery Le Thoronet. The silence, the monastic simplicity, the ” Song of the Stones ” shape the character of the new building. Its sober and discreet expression underlines both the past and the present: if on the one hand it explicitly refers to “the old”, on the other hand it affirms its own time.
The intended flexibility of the floor plans in the exhibition halls and auditorium shaped the basic concept and the constructive design of the load-bearing structure. Integrating the existing perimeter wall of natural stone masonry, a solid structure of recycled concrete extending from the 2nd basement to the ground floor forms the new base of the main building. The ceiling construction above the entrance hall is to be designed as a visible ribbed ceiling with spans of approx. 14.7 m. A lightweight construction is proposed for the lantern-like first floor. The vertical loads from the ceiling construction of cross laminated timber panels and steel girders are taken up by the steel supports along the glazing resp. vertical CLT cross laminated timber panels on the opaque facades. The canopy that borders the courtyard outside the building also consists of a lightweight frame structure made of steel profiles that supports sunshade elements made of perforated sheet metal.
The excavation pit required for the construction of the two basement levels of the new building is realised by vertical shoring and underpinning of the existing walls on the south and west boundaries of the site.
The jury judges the structural design to be appropriate: “The structural choices are in line with the architectural design and can be implemented without major difficulties.”
(Visualisations: Onirism, Milano)
