The regeneration project of the former Manifattura Tabacchi in Turin returns an industrial heritage to the city as an active, accessible, and sustainable space. The former manufacturing spaces now open to the city and the river, welcoming archival functions, public services, pedestrian paths and gathering spaces.
In a portion of land where history, landscape and culture overlap, architecture becomes a tool for connecting what has been and what can become. The result is a contemporary urban ecosystem capable of generating collective and lasting value.
Green Good Design ®
Sustainability Award
“The overall intention of the project is the articulation of an innovative and dynamic balance, which emphasizes the uniqueness of the place and makes the intervention qualitative ecologically, microclimatically and aesthetically.”
Public spaces, depaving and biodiversity
The design of the open spaces is based on a clear and necessary choice: to drastically reduce the impermeable surface and restore porosity to the city. The project eliminated more than 50 percent of previously paved surfaces, freeing up soil and activating new ecological dynamics. The result is a fluid, permeable landscape that adapts to the seasons and restores continuity between the city and the river. The historic canal system is reclaimed as ecological infrastructure, while rain gardens, drainage trenches and vegetated surfaces build a new description of an urban soil that mitigates heat islands and encourages biodiversity.
Sustainability as a project
The intervention was entirely guided by an integrated and conscious vision of sustainability. Not a summation of technologies or solutions, but a coherent system in which architecture, landscape and facilities interpenetrate. The project was developed according to LEED BD+C and GBC Historic Building protocols with an ESG strategy that promotes the ambitious goals of the Agenzia del Demanio applied from the initial stages. Every choice, from the masterplan to the choice of finishings, is the result of a design strategy that does not separate technique from architectural language but merges them into a single design expression.
Energy efficiency and bioclimatic comfort
In the study of architectural details, the project’s focus on indoor environmental well-being and energy conservation is realized through the application of bioclimatic principles. Vertical shading allows optimal solar control on the east and west faces, while the highly insulated envelope reduces heat loss. The geometry of the roofs efficiently and harmoniously integrates the photovoltaic panels, ensuring renewable energy production and contributing to the formal identity of the whole. Spaces intended for consultation and communal living benefit from abundant diffuse natural light, which promotes circadian rhythm and creates a comfortable and quiet environmental experience.
Building for Time: DFMA and Disassembly
All new fabrications are designed for dry, rational, reversible construction. The DFMA – Design for Manufacturing and Assembly – methodology guided the definition of each component, favoring prefabrication, rapid execution, and planned maintenance. The project is also designed according to the principle of disassembly: each element can be disassembled, recovered, and reused. This approach ensures durability and flexibility, contributing to a true circular economy of the built environment.
The regeneration of the former Manifattura Tabacchi is an integrated architecture project in which sustainability, memory and innovation come together to generate a new urban landscape. For Weber Architects, each intervention is an opportunity to build a more equitable, more alive, more durable piece of the city. Architecture is never just form, but responsibility, impact, and vision.
Location: Turin
Year: 2024
Typology: Urban Requalification, Public
Client: Agenzia del Demanio
Status: on going
Architectural design: Eutropia Architettura, Pininfarina Architecture, Weber Architects
Sustainability: Weber Architects
Landscape design: Paisà Landscape
Structural design: Aei Projects
Systems design: MCM Engineering
Fire protection design: LESS
Geologist: Davide Bolognini
Socioeconomic Analysis: Area Proxima
Conservation and Restoration: Arch. Enrico Toniato
Young Professionals: Arch. Vittorio Bonelli, Arch. Gloria Morichi
Communications: Pressentosa HUB
Render: PF Visual Department, Eutropia Architettura, QuattroTerzi
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