Stefano Boeri Architetti’s project for the expansion of the Mancini Pastificio Agricolo unfolds in a place where agriculture and architecture converge: a pasta factory immersed in wheat fields, where the entire production chain, from cultivation to processing, takes place on the same site, following the rhythms of the seasons rather than those of industry.

The intervention is conceived in dialogue with the existing building, a semi-underground facility from 2010, renovated in 2017 by architect Ernesto Paoletti. The new project takes the form of an addition to this structure, extending over an area of approximately 4,710 sqm and responding to the company’s new production and logistics needs: it houses pasta packaging, automated storage, and loading/unloading areas, as well as new offices and a retail space on the first floor. Alongside this expansion comes a shift in paradigm: from a linear sequence of functional spaces to a settlement principle organized around a central open space. The new volumes are set into the hillside, rotating in relation to the existing building to adapt to the natural slope, reducing the visual impact on the agricultural landscape and optimizing production flows.

The approach to the building is conceived as a progressive discovery: the structure gradually reveals itself to the eye, embedded within the morphology of the terrain. The compositional design is completed by a vertical totem marking the entrance and counterbalancing the horizontality of the volumes, becoming a visual landmark for the entire complex.

The relationship with the landscape is a central element of the project: rows of cherry trees line the building, creating a shaded natural portico, while the green roofs of the pergolas reinterpret the hilly landscape in architectural terms, evoking the agricultural tradition of tree rows as elements of separation and crop rotation.

The choice of materials also reflects this dialogue between new and existing. The two pre-existing façades — one with wooden brise-soleil, the other in exposed concrete — are clad in wooden sunscreens, which engage with the original architecture while marking its temporal distance. The new façades, by contrast, are made of textured, pigmented precast thermal-insulated concrete panels in red tones that recall the color of the earth and shift with the changing light throughout the day. This red is echoed in the entrance totem and the access area, acting as a chromatic thread that unites the different parts of the complex.