Channel Vigolungo Showroom. An experimental project to explore the potential of poplar plywood

Canale Vigolungo Showroom & Offices is a building made of highly technological poplar plywood prefabricated elements that offers a very comfortable indoor ambiance, thanks to a natural environment given by the use of wood in all building components

Lorena Alessio Architettis' research led to the design of a new construction joint - called PoplyHouse - intended to bring significant advantages in drywall construction. The firm adopted the new joint for the construction of the Canale Vigolungo Showroom, a 160-square-meter building intended to house a large exhibition space and the offices of Italian company E. Vigolungo S.p.A.

The project allows a strong connection with the outdoors through views of green and hilly areas. A "wall-library" divides showroom and offices defining a visual continuity of materials and geometries. Orange-colored poplar plywood characterizes the kitchenette and bathroom. The use of prefabricated and interconnected elements ensures great ease and speed of installation, assembly and disassembly. Other inherent advantages of poplar plywood include light weight, light and shaded coloration, and ease of processing, as well as almost unique aesthetic characteristics that are often superior to those of many panels made from other wood species

Poplar is a highly sustainable material, since it comes not from the forest but from cultivation and is characterized by a short renewability cycle. Canale Vigolungo Showroom is therefore a project that addresses the issues of technological innovation combined with sustainable architecture, and aims to develop a building whose sustainability is maintained during all phases of the life cycle: from the production phase to the assembly phase

The project has obtained from the Ministry of Economic Development - General Directorate for the Protection of Industrial Property, the patent certificate for industrial invention of structural element in plywood of which Lorena Alessio is inventor