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ARCHITREND ARCHITECTURE - SIMPLE COMPLEXITY Architrend Architecture is an architecture firm that approaches design as an interdisciplinary subject in which minimum form takes maximum effect. The entire project is considered starting from client's needs as well as site and environment exploration to design and build with high quality and through an extreme attention to details in the construction phase. Since 1989, the two co-founders and partners Gaetano Manganello and Carmelo Tumino design and build public buildings, touristic resorts and single family houses with a contemporary, minimalist and direct approach. To house their new office, Manganello and Tumino had designed a building for their headquarter in the outskirts of Ragusa. This building, made of reinforced concrete and covered in glass, is a strong character which tends to get minimal, with the least formal means and by maximizing the ultimate functional outcome. Their projects have been published in major national and international media and websites. The studio has received many prestigious architectural awards including the 2009 “G.B. Vaccarini Quadranti di Architettura” award, the 2010 and 2011 “Ance Catania” award, and also, in 2011 and 2019, the “Metra Sistema d’Autore” award. In 2012 and 2018 Architrend Architecture has been selected to take part to the Italian pavilion of the “Venice Biennial”; in 2014 and 2017 they won the international award “Bar/Ristoranti/Hotel d'Autore" with the projects MAD in Ragusa Ibla and Alba Palace Hotel in Favara. They have lectured and exhibited at many universities as well as at several national and international design conferences and have partecipated in various architecture exhibitions.
Arch. Gaetano Manganello
Arch. Carmelo Tumino
He took the license to
He took the license to
practice as architect on
practice as architect on
09-09-1986.
02-04-1987.
Insertion in the list of
Insertion in the list of
Professional Association of
Professional Association of
Architects of the province of
Architects of the province of
Ragusa n. 196.
Ragusa n. 203.
Founder and Chairman
Founder and Chairman
Architrend Architecture
Architrend Architecture
THE TEAM
Marco GarfĂŹ
Simona Tumino
Lorenzo Manganello
Carmelo Tumino
Gaetano Manganello
Federica La Terra
Fernando Cutuli
Graphic designer
Architect
Architect
Architect
Architect
Architect
Surveyor
3D visualization specialist
Project manager
Project designer
Project director
Project director
Project designer
Project designer
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ARCHITREND OFFICE The minimum form takes maximum effect Made of reinforced concrete and covered in glass, this building a strong character tends to get minimal, with the least formal means, the ultimate functional outcome. The project is located in an area of urban sprawl on the outskirts of Ragusa. The building has a large frame on the first floor, concrete-face view of 50 cm height, placed flush with the external shock defines the volume of the first floor, creating a gap with the glass facades of the ground floor. Wide overhangs to protect the entire perimeter of the building's windows from the sun, the curtain walls are made of aluminum frames with thermal and solar control double glazing with argon gas, along with a system of exterior blinds in aluminum slats, electrically adjustable , maximizing the contribution of solar radiation. A system made up of photovoltaic panels, installed in an open area of the lot, by the power of 50KW, fully complies with the building's energy requirements. All system components are managed by the building of a Vantage home automation system that acts on the sensors for the lights inside and outside, on the opening or closing the curtains to adjust the intensity of daylight and the alarm system. The water of rainfall collected from roofs is collected in a special reserve and reused for irrigation of green.
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1. view of the office faรงade on the street 2. detail of the entrance to the office
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VILLA CARLOTTA HOTEL Conservation and reuse of a rural building In the Hotel Villa Carlotta the dialectic rapport between the re-use of a historical building and the construction of a new hall is the dominating theme. The intervention is configured into two autonomous though closely correlated parts, the first concerns the recovery and functional adaptation of a late 1800's rural building into a hotel with courtyard, the second concerning the relation of the garden with swimming pool. The project saw a series of interventions that, whilst maintaining the historical characteristics of the building, also implement its transformation and conservation. The height of the existing rooms allowed for distribution over two levels connected by a double height hall, made of steel structure with glass walls, a contemporary element in relation with the pre-existing ones. On the ground floor is the reception with staircase leading to the second floor, the restaurant, eleven rooms and seven Junior suites, whilst on the second floor there is a mezzanine hall, six rooms and a suite. The restaurant inside the steel and glass structure with exposed beams in plywood faces onto the large garden with pool, opening itself up to the territory. The works are characterized by the use of natural materials placed in relation with the traditional materials present in the old rural building. A purposefully declared material dialogue that gives a late 1800's faรงade to the iron and glass volume, making it the pivot between the recovery and new construction.
1. the swimming-pool area 2. detail of the entrance to the restaurant 3. the entire intervention with the dialogue between the original building and the modern steel and glass hall
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ALBA PALACE HOTEL Contemporary grafts A Boutique Hotel in the historical centre of Favara (AG) Winner of «Bar/Ristoranti/Hotel d’autore 2017» Award Selected in the exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Italy Pavillion, 2018
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1. reception 2. the court facade 3. view of main facade
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BOSCARINO VILLA HOTEL The mode of intervention plays on the dialogue between old and new The reuse of Boscarino Villa and its garden is an important project for restoration of a historic building that would otherwise be neglected and degradation. The project involves the re-use of the hotel Villa, and operates in two different and complementary ways. The first focuses on the restoration of the body of the villa, the outbuildings and garden center; all components of the building's original susceptible to recovery have been restored, taking care to make visible any parts or rebuilding from scratch is strictly necessary. The second mode of intervention plays on the dialogue between old and new: a lightweight glass door connects the main body of the villa attached to a annex building intended to be a bar. This lightweight structure creates a homogeneous space for the lounge of the hotel in close connection with the backside/background of the villa and the garden center. The main theme of the project is thus the authenticity of the old which with the techniques of recovery are preserved and returned to the story. The new, which without damaging the existing with reversible interventions, enhances it clearly proves the processes of transformation. The theme of authenticity, one of the basic parameters of our town centers as well as the order of interventions, clarifies the relationship between tradition and modernity.
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1. the building from the garden 2. interior of the new building 3. view of the facade
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MAD In the historic center of Ragusa Ibla, UNESCO Heritage site, a cafè-restaurant that reinterprets the elements of the past in contemporary spaces The MAD (Donnafugata’s Warehouses) is located in the premises of former warehouses Donnafugata attached to the palace in the historic center of Ragusa Ibla, an UNESCO site. The main area consists of a large volume punctuated by a series of stone arches. The MAD project involved the construction of a new skin in strips of black painted wood with integrated LED lighting that covers the roof and the walls. The same material covers also the floor. The bar in the room facing the square is characterized by a unique environment where the protagonist is the former of the Baroque church of San Giuseppe (1700 Arch. Rosario Gagliardi). On the opposite wall to old gate, is was located the open view kitchen, separated from the bar by a large window. The bar counter, centrally located, is covered in raw sheet. The same material covers the walls without seamless continuity. The use of natural materials, wood, glass, bare metal, concrete floor, giving a character the contemporary intervention, enhance add value to the large environment pre-existing historic gate.
Winner of «Bar e Ristoranti d’autore 2014» Award
1. view of the entrance hall 2. view of the restaurant with the near baroque church of San Giuseppe 3. the restaurant
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PIETRE NERE RESORT The design approach was intend to give a lightweight effect and to introduce a sense of dynamism to the entire construction Architrend Architecture’s project of Pietre Nere Resort had started when the main building was already completed with its classical design and heavy, symmetrical walls and windows. The design approach was intended to give a lightweight effect and to introduce a sense of dynamism to the entire construction with large high-ceiling windows and doors connected with the surrounding area. The result seems to confirm that design choices with contemporary materials and techniques can make the difference realizing contemporary high quality design also starting from existing situation, as well as destabilizing classical and traditional fixed design approach. A glass compass door defines an ideal frame of entrance to the hall designed as a suggestive spatial dimension. The existing columns are finished with irregularly drilled backlit panels, suggesting a recall to the irregular holes on the rocks of the close archaeological area of cave civilizations. Like a patio with “impluvium” the courtyard is characterized by a curved steel roof made of a rhomboidal network structure: an unique space delimited by the two wings of the existing block on short side and by high-ceiling windows and doors on the long side, able to connect seamlessly the exterior garden in the front and the relax area with swimming pool in the backside.
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1. view of the glass facade 2. view of the interior of the hotel 3. view of the wellness and SPA center
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DON SERAFINO VILLAS Seven villas near the Mediterranean Sea A touristic complex composed by seven villas with private pool and Jacuzzi on the roof terrace. Each villa has a wide glass surface facing the garden and the external areas.
1. view of the living room 2. aerial view 3. the glass surface of the living room
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T VILLA
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Landscape frames The program of the compositional process is that of a large single-family house, alone at the center of a meadow, bordered by the free, linear horizon of the plateau. Here, in the midst of the grassy terrain, treated as virgin land for construction, the architecture stands out clearly as a complete entity with definite limits. But its borders are not ‘introverted’, they are open to visual enjoyment of the outside world, through the creation of outdoor living spaces, rooms without walls that become parts of the overall solution. The relationship with the context and the sequence of the three stacked floors relies on a sort of continuous architectural ribbon that reinterprets the flavor of the Mediterranean home, developing, bending to form rooms and the roof, outdoor zones raised from the meadow like platforms, porticos and overhangs, balconies and terraces. A solid facade clad in stone, to the north, is flanked by the harmonious antithesis of the southern and eastern facades, fully glazed and open to the greenery. They reveal the two-storey height of the living area, with the monobeam staircase leading to the first floor, containing a studio zone and a bedroom.
1. the sliding surfaces 2. the crossing frames 3. the glass surface of the double height living room
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PM VILLA Volumes and spaces to distinguish architecture The research projects its own identity through the creation of simple volumes and divided between them. The contrast between the large windows and dark surfaces of the ground floor, lava stone, and the white walls of the first floor makes the construction to be suspended and light. At the ground floor windows open onto the garden are opposed to the first floor cantilevered walls consist of sliding panels in vertical profiles of aluminum, which act as a sunscreen, and at the same time clearly characterize the villa. The outdoor area of the garden is designed as a natural extension of living inside, some particular points of view are indicated by the palm rest is a smooth surface with grass. The villa, through its surfaces with sharp contemporary stands out from the building surrounding rigor by establishing an anomaly, a short space. We think that our project is not in conflict with the environment and the landscape, but the banal existing building. 1. image of the building at dusk
2. view of the entrance facade
3. view of the lateral facade
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B HOUSE Panoramic house over San Julian’s bay and the town of La Valletta The project occurred after the demolition and reconstruction of a terrace house in the city of St. Julian, Malta making it more functional to the needs of the family. Located in a neighborhood formed by traditional buildings, the house’s main facade has a unified design, a double skin formed by a totally glazed elevation delineated by a frame of reinforced concrete. Hence creating a fresh atmosphere inside the house and giving the building a special identity from the outside. From Inside the project is characterized by a linear scale, with single flight of stairs, and double height for the entrance lobby facing the fully glazed patio, that creates the interaction between the interior spaces and the garden, while increasing the natural sun light inside the house. On the rooftop, in front of the penthouse, a swimming pool is located and surrounded by a wooden deck, giving a wonderful view of the Malta’s coast.
1. view of rooftop pool with a transparent glass bottom
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2. panoramic view from the terrace
3. view of facade from the street
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K HOUSE A beach, the sea, the horizon, nothing else The opportunity to work on a house in a special location, facing the sea, is not possible without a thorough assessment of the design of its geographical position, the current conditions of the building, and the wishes of client, which determine the objectives to be achieved and the development of the design. The intervention allows to expand to the maximum the view towards the sea through the creation of large windows with minimal windows frame. On the front side there is a system of sliding panels in aluminum, to shade and protect from the surrounding buildings. The terrace becomes the heart of the house and on it we designed the implementation of an infinity pool, to give visual continuity between the edge of the water and the sea horizon. The interiors are optimized according of the client functional needs, with spaces designed carefully with the various details relating to all components of the dwelling.
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1. the living area
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2. panoramic view from the terrace
3. view of facade from the sea
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FM VILLA Contemporary life
1. detail of the aluminum sunscreen 2. the main facade 3. detail of the facade
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M VILLA Contemporary Transformations
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1. the kitchen with the dining area 2. the South side of the building 3. detail of the facade
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NL_NF BUILDING Duplex building in exposed concrete 1. view of the west elevation 2. view of the principal facade 3. frontal view of the principal facade 4. image of the building at dusk
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LBG SICILIA The projection gives lightness to the ground floor volume, and the glass curtain wall is defined by two aluminum string-courses The modernization of the company, which produces flour for the pharmaceutical and food factory from the seeds of the carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), a typical cultivation of the local land, involves the reorganization of the entire production cycle with the introduction of new technologies and machinery. The start-up program is an opportunity for a total redesign of the volumes and the interior spaces, and it is able to reestablish a business image of efficiency and productivity. The production complex is covered with a skin of insulated aluminum panels which emphasizes the linearity of the volumes. The office block is incorporated into a new glass volume, 46 meters long , over which is placed a second volume of 30m in a staggered position respect to the main entrance lug wrench. This gives lightness to the ground floor volume, whose glass curtain wall is defined by the presence of two string-courses. The main entrance to the office is marked by a canopy made of a thin cantilever platem silos height.
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1. view of facade 2. view of facade
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CORFILAC Research laboratories and educational auditorium The Regional Consortium aims to produce and gather, in this special structure, the principal traditional cheeses of Sicily, as well as national and international cheeses of particular interest. The design of the Regional “Cacioteca� has as its objective the realization of an avant-garde structure that enhances regional dairy products. The consortium headquarters is a building with a reinforced concrete structure. The plan is characterized by organic shapes that define a large "cave" underground; it’s made of a single material: concrete. This space is lighted by windows placed on a cut of the main facade. The project defines a contemporary architecture in relationship and continuity with the surrounding landscape and with the existing building, a restored nineteenth-century manor farm.
1. view of the main entrance from the access ramp 2. detail of the entrance view 1
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IPSIA SCHOOL A new school for art and crafts The intervention, located in the western suburbs of Ragusa, constitutes the seat of the new State Professional Institute for Industry and Crafts. The building represents a recognizable architectural fragment in the undifferentiated building expansion of the suburbs. The project of the school complex was built only in three lots, including the administrative offices, classrooms and laboratories, the library, the auditorium. A longitudinal distribution tunnel becomes the generator of the other building bodies following a comb pattern which creates an articulated succession of outdoor spaces in the open courtyard. From the main entrance, a cantilevered metal canopy leads to the triple height volume of the hall and the cylindrical volume of the vertical connections, spaces where natural light and the variety of visual fields predominate. The main facade facing north, it is characterized by the double height tapered pillars and by two facades inclined in the opposite direction, one in glass and the other in pre-oxidised copper; the project creates a synthesis of confluence between the functional program and the characteristics of the place and this determination gives 1architecture its true reason for being.
1. overall view and main elevation
2. view of the double height entrance
3. detail of the facade
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TG BUILDING The enveloping metallic grid on the facade
1. detail of the metallic grid 2. the main faรงade and the lateral one 3. frontal view of the main facade
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