Data: April 2021
Info: Digitally printed ETFE covering for the winter garden on the roof of the Kursaal Santalucia Theatre in Bari.
In the splendid Art Nouveau setting of the Kursaal Santalucia theatre, a stone’s throw from the centre of Bari, a roof has been built over the winter garden on the top floor of the building. Based on a design by master artist Alfredo Pirri, the roof was conceived as an intertwining of arches forming a sinuous geometry that synthesises Art Nouveau forms with the possibility of creating complex 3D shapes of the contemporary era.
The more than 200 square metres of roofing are made up of 12 triple-layer ETFE cushions, one of which is digitally printed. The print is a reproduction of a watercolour painting created specifically for the work by Maestro Pirri, photographed in high resolution. The work was then recomposed on the cutting pattern templates of the cushions and digitally printed on the ETFE. In order to give depth to the roof, the print was made on different layers (sometimes on the outside, sometimes on the inside).
The most significant aspect of the project is the sinuous shape of the carpentry, which forms four petals and eight lunettes in the rectangular plan.