When Enzo Ferrari said that factories are made of “machines, walls and people”, he could not imagine the revolution taking place in Cernusco sul Naviglio. The new Italian gigafactory for the production of electrolysers for green hydrogen1, is about to redefine the concept of industrial architecture, blending innovation, sustainability and human well-being. I spoke about it with the mind that designed this hub, Colucci Memo, in a long “epistolary” chat. Much more than an interview, for me: the opportunity to show everyone how lines, dimensions, projects and designs are still (and fortunately) the precious fruit of people who have great souls to make travel.
A Dream Called Hydrogen
In the heart of Lombardy, a stone's throw from Milan, a project that could change the face of Italian industry is taking shape. It is not just a factory, but a graffiti of the energy transition. The gigafactory in Cernusco sul Naviglio, specialized in the production of electrolyzers for green hydrogen, is preparing to become the largest global hub in its sector. With its 25.000 square meters will be a hub large in size, but above all in ambition. Born from the collaboration between From Nora e Snam, the project foresees a production capacity of up to 4 gigawatts in the sustainable supply chain. A number that makes your head spin, especially if you consider that we are talking about 100% clean energy.
But what makes this project so special? The answer lies in the architect's revolutionary approach Stefano Menotti Colucci, known as Memo, architect and creative by birth: with the emphasis that I have and which I do not regret, the genius behind this futuristic work. “Industrial architecture has its own true dignity,” he tells me. “A dignity that is attributed to it precisely by the iconological force as a representation of humanist progress.” And I already feel like I'm breathing better air.
Memo Colucci and the art of designing the future
Memo Colucci is no stranger to challenges. Considered the greatest expert in industrial architecture on a human scale, he approached this project with a vision that goes well beyond mere functionality. “This project starts from a 'tabula rasa',” he explains, “an area to be 'rewritten' on which I thought of a large white geometry with a sloping front and a projecting element that could evoke water as a source of energy generation.”
But how do you design a building that must be efficient, sustainable and human at the same time? Colucci’s response is almost dreamlike: “I reached the site by bicycle and, while circumnavigating this large island, I imagined what I could create, thinking above all about the sensations that this project could offer visitors.” And as a boy I breathed in “drawing board dust”, then green phosphors and then CAD.
When the factory breathes
The Cernusco hub will not only be a production site, but a real living organism. The facades will be covered with self-cleaning photocatalytic paints, capable of not only decomposing pollutants in the atmosphere, but even transforming carbon dioxide into oxygen. In practice, a building that purifies the air around it. “The water, the transparency of natural light and natural ventilation together with the high level of technology will allow us to create an ideal workplace,” Colucci emphasizes. An environment that not only produces, but that takes care of those who work there.
Again, the gigafactory will not just produce electrolysers for green hydrogen. It will be a model of energy sustainability in itself. The hub will produce more energy than the expected services will consume through photovoltaic coupled with geothermal energy. A building that does not weigh on the environment, and actually actively contributes to the production of clean energy.
The challenge of materials
One of the most intriguing aspects of the project is the innovative approach to materials. “Materials are working tools through which it is possible to realize an idea,” explains Colucci. “Too often today ideas and projects start from the idea of using a material. In fact, internationally globalized and uniform projects are created.”
But for the Cernusco gigafactory, Memo Colucci has chosen a different path. “In this project, the material is used first of all by using the materials already present on the site once demolished and crushed to avoid taking them to the landfill by transporting them with thousands of trips,” he reveals. A circular approach that drastically reduces the environmental impact of the construction.
Beyond the walls: the impact on the territory
Memo Colucci's ambition, if it wasn't clear, goes beyond the confines of the gigafactory.
Our task is not only to put things in order, but to extend the project towards the territory, trying to integrate it into the context, redefining its most remote and often forgotten meanings.
This translates into a holistic approach that sees this hub as an integral part of the urban and natural fabric of Cernusco sul Naviglio. “The intervention will be carried out in terms of minimizing CO2 emissions and increasing permeability and renaturalization,” explains the architect, “also through forms of greenery integrated into the buildings.” The project includes a perimeter of trees that will surround the plant, along with a garden with a bio-lake to absorb excess water. A true green lung that embraces technology.
And in the heart of production? A museum
Memo Colucci's vision does not stop at production. Inside the hub there will also be space an energy museum, open not only to citizens but specifically designed for student visits. “The project that I have defined as 'green line' will also be represented by a corporate museum,” explains the architect, “as a tool that allows us to go into depth; it is full of opportunities to tell the story of the talent of innovation.”
This space will not only be an attraction for visitors, but a real bridge between the technology of the present and the challenges of the future. "I would be more inclined to visit the places of the energy revolution than those proposed by necrotourism," he adds. Could you blame him? Against gentrification, the relaunch of aspirations and protopia.
Who does it remind you of? For me, Memo Colucci's thoughts echo the words of Adriano Oliveti, when he argued that “the factory cannot only look at profits. It must distribute wealth, culture, services, democracy”. The gigafactory in Cernusco perfectly embodies this philosophy, because it promises to create not only products, but also opportunities. “New job opportunities in the green energy sector and its related industries”, Colucci almost echoes. With 350 employees expected, the gigafactory is set to become an important economic engine for the region. A number that takes on even more significance if we consider that the project was born from the redevelopment of the old abandoned Rapisarda factory, which produced pipes.
A connected revolution
“The gigafactory will be connected to Milan through the public network and with the tree-lined interconnection paths”, explains Memo Colucci. I add: the structure will be connected to Milan by the cycle path that runs along the Alzaia Naviglio Martesana, promoting gentle mobility. The choice of location was not accidental: the proximity to the green line metro stop, which connects Cernusco sul Naviglio with Milan and serves many neighboring municipalities, was a determining factor.
Where does industrial design look?
I couldn’t spare him questions about the future, it’s still about the Near Future. Because Colucci doesn’t just design buildings, he rethinks the entire concept of industrial design, and he does it with an architecture that somehow also contains a denunciation in its proposal, in a way that I could define as “blasphemous” for the object itself. “Today it is more necessary than ever,” he says, “to illustrate the excesses of industrialization, climate deregulation, the unbridled exploitation of natural resources,” he states. “To redefine design as a social practice, as a survival strategy, as a tactic of coexistence, as a technique of metamorphosis: design as a technology of hope.”
“Technology of Hope” touched my feelings, to be honest. It is not rhetoric, the communicator is speaking to you. In the new era of industry, that which we expect to be full of robots but which will simply have man in a new guise, production is no longer separate from the environment and society, but becomes an integral part of a broader and more sustainable ecosystem.
The cradle of a revolution
When I ask him how to design the cradle of a revolution, Memo Colucci answers with a depth that leaves me breathless. “I believe that hydrogen was recognized as a possible energy source already in 1800,” he reflects, “but then the availability of fossil energy pushed humanity towards a more 'convenient' energy, even at the expense of international political balances.” In this sense, the Cernusco gigafactory is not just a building, but a symbol of redemption. “I believe that this new project must start precisely from the mistakes of the past,” he says.
The new cradle must therefore be designed to connect photovoltaic energy and water, the primary elements for the production of hydrogen, to then implement the processes necessary to work these elements with care and safety for humans and the environment.
Memo Colucci and the future that becomes present
“Architecture, and then design, can take on the role of social commitment in organizing natural space to harmoniously accommodate the anthropization of the territory,” concludes Colucci. And looking at the renderings of the Cernusco gigafactory, I can’t help but think that perhaps, finally, we could really learn to build not against nature, but with it.
The Cernusco sul Naviglio gigafactory will not only be the largest hub for the production of green hydrogen electrolysers in the world. It will be the opportunity, yet another (how many will we have before we run out?) to do industry in a different way. To make efficiency and beauty go hand in hand, to make work an enriching experience. I dare say we already have the solutions. What is needed is the courage to apply them, and on a large scale. For now, thanks also to a visionary like Memo Colucci, a little courage is taking shape one brick at a time in the Lombardy plain.
The hydrogen revolution has just (re)started, and it has found a major home in Cernusco sul Naviglio, Italy. With construction scheduled for completion in 2025, it won't be waiting long to take its first steps.
- What exactly are these electrolyzers? They are electrochemical devices that use electricity to split water into its constituent elements: oxygen and, most importantly, hydrogen. This is where the magic happens, turning ordinary water into the fuel of the future. ↩︎
