Adige estuary tower

Project description

The observation tower stands at the mouth of the river Adige, in the municipality of Rosolina, as part of the integrated project to enhance the Destra Adige river system: a slow-mobility route of about 90 km from Badia Polesine to the Adriatic, which is in turn the seaward end of the Alps-Garda-Sea route and of the wider international Ring of the Alps project. The tower therefore marks the finishing point of an international cycle-tourism route.

Since 2015 the area has been a UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserve; it is the largest wetland in Italy, with dunes, pine forests, fishing lagoons and over 360 bird species. The tower’s form recalls a nest resting on a stylised tree and, with its arched uprights, reeds bent by the wind: from the top there is a 360° view of the sea to the east, the river to the west, the estuary island to the north and the dunes and pine forest to the south.

The steel structure, 16 m high above the shoreline, rests on a reinforced concrete slab on micropiles. A helical staircase with cantilevered steps welded to a central tube rises to the observation platform, which is also carried by eight curved tubes and braced by St Andrew’s crosses.

The project received the Barbara Cappochin International Architecture Prize among the best regional works.