How high is the impact of the wine production on our eco-system?
Well, this is a question that lots of people are asking, especially in these last few years during which the attention to the sustainability and the organic production are entering more and more the wineries. To plan a sustainable cellar is not an easy job. Hence, then the bio-architecture. We have talked about it with the architect Marcello Mantengoli.
He graduated with honours 20 years ago in Florence, and he has had lots of professional experiences with a multidisciplinary approach towards the architectural projecting with a particular attention to interior and industrial design. He works with his own professional business as well as in collaboration with other offices and societies.
After years of work both in Montalcino and in Rome he pursued the projecting and building activity with various experiences and for clients working in the wine and oil worlds and he also consistently engaged himself in the issue of sustainability and design.
What is the precise meaning of bio-architecture?
“The prefix bio means life. Architecture is the noble art of creating spaces for human beings. So the basic principles of bio-architecture are entangled with its own name”
How was bio-architecture born?
“Things went this way: at a certain point arose the necessity to side the concept of architecture with the one of life, as a reminder against some projecting attitudes that, in some cases, seemed to be stranded in functionalism, while in other cases they showed a formal homologation and the search for a maximum gain both in the building process and in the selection of the building materials. Through architecture men create their own physical and metaphysical spaces, it is the art that more than others transforms and shapes the territory. The search for quality indoor as well as outdoor requests the use of natural materials and sustainable practices with regard to our mother Earth.
Which are the measures that you use every time you came to start a new project?
“First of all, whenever we have the possibility to create a new building we should make the best possible use of the location from the point of view of the orientation of the solar cycle and of the winds’ direction.
To orient the spaces according to the light means to naturally use the heat and the lightning already provided by our earth. At the same time, in order to lessen the energy use from fossil sources is mandatory to instal solar panels (both thermic and photovoltaic), heat pumps with or without geothermal probes etc… At the moment of the building we have to take into account the ecological footprint of the materials we intend to use. This footprint represents the costs both in financial and ecological terms to produce, use and dispose of a certain material. For this reason the choice should be in the direction of natural materials such as wood, stone, cork and also for the finishing touches we should use plasters made with natural lime and paint made without chemical pollutants and all of those materials which lack, totally or partially, toxic pollutants.
There is another crucial aspect that I always like to highlight: in this new sustainable approach that each and every one of us should embrace, there cannot be a place for self-referential signs or over-the-top aesthetic charms, rather there must be a renewed sobriety. We must always remember that beauty is measure and harmony”.
