Draft:Forum Fondazione Bertarelli

The Forum Fondazione Bertarelli is a private concert hall near Poggi del Sasso, in the province di Grosseto. It houses chamber music concerts and theatrical performances. It is considered an example of virtuous achievement in the field of green building and energy efficiency in buildings.

Since 2015 the concert hall permanently hosts the international classical music concert series "Amiata Piano Festival".

History
The idea of ​​building a concert hall for 300 people in an apparently isolated area of the Maremma hinterland stems from the Fondazione Bertarelli's desire to replace a residential development plan with a cultural building of the same volume and cost, and the need to transition from a program of small-scale musical events, organized since 2006 within the Collemassari winery, to something more structured. The task was entrusted to architect Edoardo Milesi, who presented the preliminary project in 2010, which included a completely stone-clad building made of local Amiata stone with a concert hall, dressing rooms for artists, rehearsal rooms, and a restaurant with a 360° view of the surrounding landscape.

In 2012, a new project was presented, and the idea of ​​adding a restaurant to the concert hall was abandoned. However, the new project included the addition of a foyer and a large outdoor patio. The materials also change: the stone cladding is replaced by colored paste cement, weathering steel, and glass, thus radically changing the construction system from entirely traditional to a mixed system with pre-assembled parts installed dry on-site.

In June of the same year, construction works began, which were completed sixteen months later. The first acoustic test of the hall took place in November 2014 with a closed-door musical performance by pianist Maurizio Baglini and cellist Silvia Chiesa. Present in the hall were not only sound technicians but also an audience composed of the client, designers, and all the workers involved in the building's construction.

It was officially inaugurated on June 19, 2015, and since then, it has been the permanent venue for the editions of the Amiata Piano Festival, held in June, July, and August and broadcasted by Rai Radio 3, as well as the Christmas concert. Numerous artists from both the national and international music scene have performed inside, including Salvatore Accardo, Ramin Bahrami, Mario Brunello, Gianluca Cascioli, Shlomo Mintz, Moni Ovadia, Roberto Prosseda, Danilo Rea and Peter Maxwell Davies.

In 2017, the project won the first prize for Sustainability from AESS (Association for Energy Sustainability and Economics). In the same year, it also received an honorable mention from the jury of the Dedalo Minosse International Prize for Architecture Client. In 2021, the project won the Golden A'Design Award in architecture, building and structure design cathegory.

Description
The building consists of a single structure divided into two parts: the concert hall and the rectangular-shaped foyer. The complex covers an area of 2,086 m2 and is located on the top of a hill cultivated with olive trees near Poggi del Sasso, immersed in the Tuscan Maremma. The dressing rooms on the basement floor, located next to the hall with direct access to the stage, and the large outdoor patio overlooking the surrounding hills completing the structure.

To adhere to principles of green building, the hall is equipped with two independent ventilation systems: one mechanical for air conditioning and one natural. In the mechanical system, designed to be silent to avoid any noise in the hall, warm or cool air, depending on seasonal needs, is distributed through diffusers located beneath each individual seat for uniform comfort among the audience. Natural air exchange occurs through the utilization of passive energies: a system of air intakes open to the outside, facing north, captures the north wind and channels it inside, towards the lower part of the hall. Simultaneously, a small opening at the top, opposite to the distribution grilles, appropriately opened, activates the Venturi effect. This effect, thanks to the pressure difference generated, triggers the natural exchange of air within minutes.

From an acoustic standpoint, the concert hall is designed to amplify sound without the use of mechanical instruments. The oval shape of the circular wall on which the roof is mounted, as well as the two lateral wings that envelop the audience, and especially the particular configuration of the ceiling, acting like a sound box, contribute to ensuring that each of the 300 spectators receives the same amount of sound waves without generating echoes or disturbances. This design blends sophisticated acoustic criteria with the need for high energy efficiency. Additionally, the floor of the stage area rests above an empty space, creating an air chamber that enhances the acoustics. However, there is an audio amplification system for electronic musical instruments and audio-video projections.

Exterior
Viewed from the outside, the building presents an organic shape perfectly enclosed, measured by golden proportions conceived for mechanically unamplified acoustics. From both near and far, the concert hall does not appear as a building because it lacks openings, and its external surfaces, rough and clad in earth-colored cement, resemble a mound fortified by the undulating slab of oxidized weathering steel which, conforming to the volume of the hall, partially envelops it, contributing to the seismic stability of the foyer. The foyer is made up of thin corten blades and a long glass wall facing southwest.

On the northeast side of the foyer, there is a large outdoor patio paved with travertine slabs and covered by a cantilevered canopy made of steel and glass.

Interiors
A thick iron slab inspired by the works of Richard Serra, initially low, grows until it completely obscures the view of the agricultural landscape surrounding the building, guiding the visitor inside the foyer where, flooded with light, the solid volume of the theater dematerializes into a showcase of the landscape. From here, you access the oval-shaped concert hall, half of which is underground. The hall presents itself as a single space without interruption between the auditorium and the stage area, the latter simply delineated by a change in flooring to solid fir wood. From inside, the structure reveals the unique surface of the drum wall on which rests the ellipsoidal dome-shaped metal structure covered with zinc-titanium sheets. Curved wings clad in cherry wood conceal the connections to the various levels and embrace laterally the stepped rows on which the seats are installed. The expansive ceiling of the hall, also entirely clad with cherry wood panels, is a hollow structure that serves as both a soundbox and housing for the stage lighting and rigging. It is inspired by the shape of a cuttlebone to ensure proper visibility of the stage space even from the balcony and uniform acoustic distribution to each individual spectator. The underside rises convexly above the stage and then curves concavely, while maintaining convexity in the transverse direction. There are three different types of flooring: cherry and fir wood for the concert hall; open-hole travertine for the foyer, common areas, and external pedestrian passages; and ceramic tiles for the technical areas and dressing rooms.

The Bertarelli Foundation
Established by siblings Maria Iris Tipa Bertarelli and Claudio Tipa, it is a private foundation that pursues public utility goals by promoting the territory of Tuscany and providing financial support to numerous projects in the fields of art, music, archaeology, and the environment. The Foundation collaborates with and supports research projects at the University of Pisa and the University of Siena. It also collaborates with the Teatro Stabile di Grosseto and sponsors the Amiata Piano Festival chamber music festival. Among its most significant contributions in the artistic field, the Bertarelli Foundation has supported the conservative restoration of the frescoes in the Church of Sant'Agostino in Montalcino.