Le Albere

In 2004 and 2005, Carlos Araya collaborated for Renzo Piano, Danilo Vespier and Susanna Scarabicchi in the integral design of the so-called “Quartiere delle Albere” district, site of the old Michelin factory located in Trento-Italy, is part of the new structure of the city of Trento.

The natural context, which in Trento is defined by the nearby river Adige and Monte Bondone, previously separated from the urban structure, forms an intrinsic part of the new image of the city. Quartiere delle Albere hosts MuSe, the new Science Museum, thus reinforcing the cultural identity of this area of ​​Trento. The limits of the new district, which covers an area of ​​116,300 m2, are clearly defined by the Adige river to the west and the railway to the east.

The northern edge is bordered by the Palazzo delle Albere, a Renaissance fortress-villa. The design of commercial buildings is linear and their ‘green’ facades become a kind of natural screen, hiding the pathways along which they are largely aligned. The residential buildings are provided with open courtyards that have been cut away so that glimpses of the internal wooded gardens can be seen from the outside. The buildings are four to five stories tall, with the tallest buildings on either side of the project: a multi-purpose building on the south and MuSe, a large interactive science museum, on the north end. The museum acts as a magnet for the project and, together with the Palazzo delle Albere (today the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), attracts the public and confirms the cultural and recreational vocation of the revitalized area.

The layout of the urban plan placed these two buildings as its main anchors, surrounded by water and connected to each other by the two main roads: one is a straight sidewalk to the east and the other a curve along a canal that serves to connect the buildings to the park. Sustainability was a big part of the design of the Quartiere delle Albere regeneration project. In fact, the buildings consume little energy with extensive use of renewable resources. MuSe is LEED Gold certified.