Cinecitta Due, Rome I

ITALY
Rome

Architect:
Cinzia Savoino, Ludovico Rolli, Rome

Structural Engineer:
ICOMSA spa

Developer:
Gruppo Lamaro

The Cinecitta commercial centre is, in fact, one of the first attempts in Italy to concentrate an integrated system of services in a single entity, emulating the decentralized shopping areas of other European as well as American cities. Like most of its kind and size, the Cinecitta Due is also a mixed use project accommodating banks, restaurants, shops, cinemas and offices under its dramatic steel and glass roofscape. The network of vaulted circulation arcades, courts and 12 metre wide "streets" is glazed to provide sheltered shopping, and converges on a spacious square on two levels inundated with natural light from the double pyramid glazed roof above. The exposed steel structure creates a slender tall space. No other material would have lent itself to this approach. The exposed tubular barrel vaulted arcades reinforce this feeling of delicateness as well as bringing natural light into the space.

The glass roof over the large square is supported on tubular steel columns only 556 mm in diameter. To satisfy fire codes, the columns are coated with intumescent paint. The space frame of the pyramid roofs consists of a tubular truss with screwed polyhedral joints. Sloping roof surfaces are covered with glass panels on a folded sheet structure, which is connected to the truss by special adjustable spacers.