This architectural and landscape project is part of a comprehensive improvement plan for the highway infrastructure for the third lane of the Florence-Bologna section of the A1 highway.
The project’s primary purpose is to plan and build noise protection elements in addition to solutions targeted at environmental and infrastructural mitigation, such as transfer hub parking lots and artificial tunnels. The noise barriers, which are both absorbent, made of terracotta and Corten steel, and reflecting, in Corten steel and glass, were designed as architectural constructions that give character to the landscape along the highway section by their references to a traditional local material. The barriers are made of a system of microperforated Corten steel panels, supported by “double T” beams on which there are repeated linear sequences of terracotta elements. Beyond the effective sound reduction from the panels with rock wool inside, the terracotta from Impruneta withstands smog and frost, which greatly reduces maintenance costs and gives it the appearance of historic city walls.