Olbia, “Terranova” Shopping Center

The shopping center covers a very large area on the edge of the town of Olbia, fitting into the type of buildings for large retailers that are now widespread and characterized by repetitive structures.
The shopping center “Terranova” was built in 1996-97. The architect Aldo Rossi has been able to reinterpret the building type in an absolutely new and personal way. It is a large building that has two tall pillars in front of the wall pierced by openings that allow as many passages to the real entrance: this one has a front with bands of two alternating colors of andesite and basalt and open “like a fan”. Along the sides, the smooth columns embedded in the masonry recall classical culture. Particularly interesting is the use of different materials that highlight the even bright colors of the building.
Inside, the geometric origin of the spaces is even more evident, where the connecting points form some squares - one circular in the shape of a cone, the others rectangular - all functional and useful for walking along the shops that overlook a gallery, illuminated by a central zenithal light.
Both the cone trunk, evidently suggested by the nuragic well of Santa Cristina di Paulilatina, and the materials used reveal the recovery of the architectural culture of the island particularly loved by Rossi.
In the design and construction, the architect Aldo Rossi has made use of the collaboration of Michele Tadini and the Arp Studio.

History of studies
A review of studies can be found in the bibliography relating to the fact sheet in the volume of the “History of Art in Sardinia” on nineteenth-century architecture (2001).

Bibliography
“Terranova Shopping Center”, in Abitare, 1998, 373, pp. 192-197; Aldo Rossi.
All the works, edited by A. Ferlenga, Milan, Electa, 1999, pp. 426-427;
F. Masala, Architecture from the Unification of Italy to the end of the 20th century. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2001, sheet 180.