The Italian group Club del Sole has launched a series of studies on new types of accommodation to be perfectly and sustainably integrated into the group’s locations in Italy. There are 20 owned villages and all very different from each other, both as regards the territorial conformation and the naturalistic one. Each has unique aspects that can be valued and that must be safeguarded.
This is precisely what is happening at the Spina Family Camping Village in Lido di Spina where a prototype of the RE-TREE-T was recently installed, creating the kick off of a new course in space design. To learn more about this project, we interviewed Paolo Scoglio, founding architect of The Nest Architecture Studio and Francesca Thiébat, associate professor of the Department of Architecture and Design of the Turin Polytechnic, who are overseeing and studying the activity.
We asked Paolo Scoglio to tell us about the genesis of the project, where the idea started from and what the Firm’s previous experience is in this type of reception facility.
“I am the founder of The Nest studio, a group of professionals who have been dealing with experiential microarchitectures for almost 20 years,” says Scoglio. “We operate mainly in Italy, but also abroad: in Switzerland and Finland. We met the Club del Sole group professionally last year. We were contacted precisely because we could be the right people to face this very interesting challenge, i.e. starting from some locations in the Club del Sole villages and trying, through meticulous investigation work, also with very advanced design tools which are the ones we use in the our business, to imagine an innovation. Literally redesigning a whole series of elements”.
“The first location that seemed to us the most suitable to start with this redesign work was the Camping Village in Lido di Spina, an incredible place made up of biodiversity and an ecosystem that is absolutely intact and original in its wonderful complexity. Lido di Spina is not only included in the Po Delta park, but is called the biosphere, therefore it is an internationally recognized ecosystem entity“.
“The first real challenge was to approach this complex natural world on tiptoe and with great humility and therefore try to imagine how we could tell it with our architectures in a ‘gentle’ and reversible way, making people could really understand a natural reality that is a little more complex, more refined, more profound than that which seemed to emerge from the typical use of the village. In particular, within this ecosystem there is the centuries-old pine forest, which is a real ‘micro-habitat’ within the Po delta, made up of centuries-old trees, in this case maritime pines, which in such cases have almost monumental size. It came almost physiological to us, who have in our DNA building on trees, among trees and with trees, to imagine an architecture that was in harmony with this wonderful ecosystem of the pine forest“.
“The most intriguing and most fascinating aspect of all was precisely identifying what we then baptized the Laboratory of Innovative Hospitality, i.e. an open-air place which, thanks to the vision and foresight of Club del Sole, could literally be destined to host prototypes, innovation, experimentation in the world of hospitality in symbiosis with nature.”
From the idea of Tree House to the realization for Club del Sole
“The real challenge was to bring hospitality to these beautiful trees in the pine forest,” continues Paolo Scoglio, “and the idea that took shape in RE-TREE-T was that of the tree house, however in the form of a tent: a light architecture born from the hybridization of metal, textile, and wooden materials, which could be reversible. So, a very large, comfortable, and organized tent also with an internal bathroom to be able to accommodate 2+2 people off the ground, in the middle of the trees, but with a large terrace connected to it with the addition of a suspended tent (of the Tentsile type) which can be used as a hammock”.
“It is a very versatile system because being composed of two elements, the terrace and the awning, which can also be placed at different heights, it is possible to create a group of these systems which form a real village among the trees and imagine within this pine forest, which covers several hectares of Lido di Spina, a real settlement that can accommodate people among the branches of the maritime pines”.
Laboratory of innovative hospitality and constant study to improve the performance of the accommodation
The project already starts with highly selected materials for its construction, with great attention to sustainability: for the construction it considers textile elements composed of certified membranes where the percentage of PVC recycling is high. As far as metals are concerned, recycled steels worked with a cold press-bending were chosen, therefore with energy use, at the production level, clearly lower than hot sections. The wooden parts are composed of materials from certified forests. Despite this, the ambition is to further optimize everything, according to the guidelines that will be indicated by the Turin Polytechnic following the study that will be carried out.
The added value of this project is precisely this analysis of the prototype by the Turin Polytechnic, which will help to better understand all its aspects and improve them effectively. This is why we asked Francesca Thiébat, associate professor of the Department of Architecture and Design to explain to us concretely what will happen and what their contribution will be.
“For several years we have been collaborating with the architect Paolo Scoglio on the themes of parametric design and the relationship between architecture and nature,” explains Francesca Thiébat. “This opportunity linked to Club del Sole proved to be interesting as our lines of research are based on sustainable design, not only environmental, but also economic and social. Another research topic that involves us is that of ‘Life Cycle Design’, particularly important in the case of Lido di Spina, where the architecture must be based on the principles of reversibility in order to one day be dismantled and allow the restoration of the soil, the reuse and recycling of technological components according to the dictates of the circular economy”.
“We have activated a research grant on this and a student who is already working on the relationship between the structure and its context has been involved. We will try to understand how to minimize the environmental impact of construction materials. The impact of the prototype will be analyzed and quantified throughout its life cycle, in order to reduce or balance CO2 emissions through the use of biogenic materials or through the vegetation itself.Furthermore, the requirements that the building must satisfy in order to respond to the needs of users will be defined, both users and managers and any other interested entity. Our task is to define how the building is in synergy with the natural environment and the people who will live in it“.
“On the prototype, both the analysis of the materials used and the study of the microclimatic conditions of the context are currently underway through sensors placed on the site. In a second phase, users will be interviewed. There is also the intention to involve the students of the degree courses in Architecture of the Polytechnic of Turin with a project workshop whose objective will be to re-process the data acquired to optimize the prototype“.
The approach is that of a work in progress which, starting from the basis of a prototype, can evolve according to the results of the studies that will be carried out over time.
Photo credits: Francesco Salvaggio
The showroom open to the public
RE-TREE-T is therefore a truly innovative project and can already be viewed, discovered, and studied at the Spina Family Camping Village by users too, but it will only become operational and start welcoming the first people as guests after a while. This year a real showroom will be created, an open-air laboratory that customers will be able to visit and which will be provided with communication materials in which there will be QR codes, from which it will be possible to access a dedicated mini-site, where the project will be told with all the most important focuses that will help people understand the context and the planning. A truly commendable and very innovative initiative for the sector.
