Tanca

TEAM DATA

Team Representative: Pietro Colonna (IT) – architect  
Contributors: Maureen Soupe (FR), Enrico Zetti (IT) – students in architecture

Calle Sta. Maria de Gracia  Pastrengo 9, 41004 – Sevilla (ES)
+34 674739429 – PietroColonnaArchitect@gmail.com –  www.pietrocolonna.it

See the complete listing of portraits here 
See the site page here 

^{P. Colonna, E. Zetti & M. Soupe}

INTERVIEW
^{Click on the images to enlarge}

1. How did you form the team for the competition?

We met "on the road", in different moments and circumstances of our journey. A fortuitous meeting had us seated around the same table. We talked a lot and started drawing. Words were then no longer needed and what came next wasn't but a necessary consequence.

2. How do you define the main issue of your project, and how did you answer on this session main topic: the place of productive activities within the city?

Our project name is 'TANCA'. 'TANCA', in Italian means "large container of water or other materials". It immediately seemed to us to be the most suitable name to express the idea of "Productive City" we wanted to propose: a model that would start considering either tangible and intangible resources available on site (human resources above all), and able to activate integrated dynamics between work and daily life.

3. How did this issue and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?

"Tanca" aims at becoming a hub connecting the city with its territory to the mutual benefit of both and creating a common ground for identity and development of Finnmark communities . The "large container" is filled with complex activities in synergy between the inhabitants and their wonderful landscape. The project envisages the implementation of an alternative lifestyle in which social development is mainly centered on co-operative models based on a highly experimental aquaponics system, which combines fish farming and agricultural production in greenhouses around which the residential pattern develops. Bossekop is an ancient Sami trading post and marketplace, so we kept the historical essence of the place by improving community trading, local production and the relationships between producer and consumer through the prism of long term sustainability.

4. Have you treated this issue previously? What were the reference projects that inspired yours?

Each of us has had, in the course of his own path, the opportunity to get in touch with this topic. Pietro, had already developed an "idea of productive city" in the 2016 winning proposal for the Italian competition AAA Architetti Cercasi. It must be evident to everyone by now that the urban model based on industrial production is changing, at least in the Western world. Rather than among the architectural projects, our references should be sought in literature and cinema. A book we would recommend, for example, is "Alternatives Energétiques, Plaidoyer pour une autosuffisance locale" by Yona Friedman, while two great documentary films that influenced our view on the issue would be "Demain" directed by Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent and the unavoidable "Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance", directed by Godfrey Reggio.

5. Today –at the era of economic crisis and sustainability– the urban-architectural project should reconsider its production method in time; how did you integrate this issue in your project?

We have thoroughly examined this absolutely crucial aspect. The whole project idea has in fact been conceived as a process. This is evident within the schemes that highlight the various stages of Tanca's development. The participatory mechanism has been considered since phase 1. It must be said that our masterplan contains an intrinsic value. The design of the new neighbourhood's axes integrates existing buildings with new ones into an urban system flexible both at a functional and temporal level, in terms of "progress of works" in the hypothesis of a future realization.

6. Is it the first time you have been awarded a prize at Europan? How could this help you in your professional career?

Yes, this is the first time we have received an Europan award. In fact it is also the first time we participate and we are happy to see that our work has been appreciated. We still do not know how all this might help us in the near future, the most honest answer that comes to our mind is "let's see".