A new editorial project that looks to the future
“ARCHITYPES” is the Porto Marghera-based company’s new project, involving a series of publications in Italian and English. Zintek is adding an “object, which is much more than a house organ, to the elegant monographs on the work it has produced. “ARCHITYPES” talks in detail about Zintek’s activities and also contains interviews, dossiers and articles on the global topics of architecture and design. Its objective is to generate a conversation, create a debate and inspire new designs for the smart cities of the future.
“ARCHITYPES” is a bridge between Zintek and its readers, between its past and the future. It is the cultural expression of the company and proof of the values of creativity and quality that, not by chance, emerged in Venice, which was recently awarded the title of Italian Capital of Business Culture 2022, where events, business museums, publications, conferences and meetings are the ideal basis for talking about know-how.
Venice, a protagonist with its big challenges
The first number could only be about Venice, the city that has witnessed the birth and growth of Zintek. It is a city that poses exciting challenges, from the combination of ancient and modern to the need to offer services without impacting the landscape. Zintek took on these challenges wholeheartedly in the projects it has completed in recent years. “ARCHITYPES” takes the reader on a historical journey through the architecture of Venice and the use of lead in the city, studying the development of metals, all the way up to zintek® titanium zinc, the natural evolution of lead, with the Molino Stucky building, the Conterie in Murano, the San Marco Royal Gardens, the public piers and the votive chapel designed by Sean Godsell for the “Vatican Chapels” installation on the island of San Giorgio.
Porto Marghera, the relaunch through the bond between industry and culture
Porto Marghera is one of the largest industrial areas in Europe. What will its future be? In redesigning a territory that wants to go back to being a protagonist, an overall view that considers it a unicum with Venice cannot be disregarded. The key to the relaunch of Porto Marghera is the bond between industry and culture, a synergy that passes through the creation of innovative, technological and creative spaces. Zintek plays a leading role in this: from the Venice Heritage Tower to the Cittadella dell’Edilizia, the company contributes to putting innovative ideas and projects into practice, showing that it can be done.
The interview: Renata Codello is the guest
Debate and confrontation. One of the goals of “ARCHITYPES” is to propose topics and make people reflect; this is because simply producing is not enough – action is needed in the territory. For this reason, there will be an interview in every number of “ARCHITYPES”. The first interview is with Renata Codello, an architect and Secretary General of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, former Head of the Architectural and Landscape Heritage of Venice and of Eastern Veneto, with whom Zintek wished to hold a debate about Venice, the city’s problems and needs.
The conversation with Codello focuses primarily on the compatibility of old and new materials, the impact on the landscape, the durability of the materials and their functionality over time. These are all elements that must be studied and analysed before embarking on a project.
Furthermore, we need to converse with the environment. It is like a symphony, a melody, and each intervention needs to place itself on the score without altering it. In this sphere, industrial production can take place side by side with culture, as they are not two contrasting elements.
THE TECHNICAL DOSSIER: discovering a residential project
In every issue, “ARCHITYPES” will propose an in-depth technical editorial in a specific area of architecture, which will be different each time. A contemporary residential project in Nervi, Genoa, in a consolidated urban fabric subject to landscape constraints, will launch the series.
Hand drafted drawings, sketches and photographs show the work performed by the architect Maurizio Varratta in close collaboration with the Municipality. Zintek built some roofs, which fully respect the surrounding landscape, in harmony with the colours of the curved tile and slate rooftops, while at the same time guaranteeing a technology that makes it possible to reduce the energy consumption for heating in the internal spaces.
New projects: from “zero kilometres” to China
The most recent projects also find space on “ARCHITYPES”; the first issue talks about two of them, created thousands of miles away but linked by a combination of elegance and functionality.
In Shenzen, Southeastern China, the Porto Marghera-based company built a bridge that connects several schools and residential areas with Huanggang Park, over an eight-lane road. This footbridge, defined as “legendary” by the Guangdong provincial committee, is open on the sides so that passers-by can look at the surrounding greenery and has natural earth brown zintek® roofing, a colour that complements the yellow ochre colour of the wood, thus blending with the surrounding environment.
In the virtually “zero kilometre” Mestre, Venice, Zintek took care of the cladding on Epsilon, the seventh building making up Venice’s Ca’ Foscari university campus. The building is entirely clad with zintek®, for which the company respected the rules of sustainability and safety, while keeping beauty in mind. This is a harmonious, modern place, where students can study and gain new knowledge and skills.
Request your free copy now
To celebrate this new editorial project, Zintek is offering subscribers to its newsletter the opportunity to receive the first issue of ARCHITYPES for free.
