The spectacular Palazzo Italia building in Milan is a smog-eating machine. This unusual Palazzo Italia building is clad with biodynamic concrete panels.
The Palazzo Italia actually consumes smog and takes pollution out of the air through its incredibly engineered biodynamic skin.
The cladding of the white sinuous building is both highly innovative and sustainable. The 9,000-square-meter façade was realized with 900 biodynamic concrete panels developed by Italcementi. Its TX Active technology captures air pollution when the envelope material comes into contact with light, which it then transforms into inert salts, reducing smog levels in the environment. Each exterior panel of Palazzo Italia, produced with Styl-Comp technology, is unique, and the building itself is net-zero energy, which means thanks to the design team’s extensive use of photovoltaic glass and photocatalytic concrete cladding, the structure is capable of covering its energy needs autonomously.
Italian architectural firm, Nemesi & Partners Palazzo Italia is a unique building with pavilion made from a special air-purifying cement created by Italcementi and stretches over 9,000 square meters (96, 875 sq ft), requiring an estimated 2,000 tonnes (2,204 tons) of cement to accomplish the feat.
“The entire outdoor surface and part of the interiors will consist of i.active Biodynamic cement panels,” says Italcementi. “In direct sunlight, the active principle contained in the material ‘captures’ certain pollutants present in the air and converts them into inert salts, helping to purify the atmosphere from smog.”
Some 80 percent of this air-purifying cement is made from recycled materials, such as scraps from Carrara marble. The Palazzo Italia will also be fitted with a photovoltaic glass rooftop to generate solar energy during the day.
Nemesi & Partners wanted the building to act like a kind of urban jungle, not only aesthetically but by also mimicking the role of trees in city landscapes – which naturally help purify the air. Inspired by nature, the final design resembles large stretched out tree branches which wrap themselves around the iconic building.
“The overall concept of the architectural design of the Italian Pavilion is that of an urban forest in which the building, through its skin and its volumetric arrangement, takes on the features of an architectural landscape,” says Nemesi & Partners. “The branching pattern of the external cladding of Palazzo Italia coherently interprets the theme of the tree of life, inserting it in the form of a petrified forest.”