Natural elements

Antonio Iascone, Casalunga Golf Resort

Abstract

Golf, a sport once synonymous with luxury and high social status, is steadily expanding to attract different strata of society, and as a result we are seeing the creation of many new golf courses and related facilities.

So while on the one hand, the game may be losing its aura of exclusiveness, on the other it is increasingly taking on the connotation of an environmentally-friendly sport that lets people commune with nature and the Casalunga Golf Resort, built in Castenaso (near Bologna) by Antonio Iascone, is emblematic of this type of approach, though it is an expansion of a pre-existing golf club.

This project involved the creation of five new build- ings, a pool and an open-air bar to round out and replace the services at the old golf club. Enormous importance has been placed on both structural and cladding materials. The ‘environmentally sustainable’ aspect inherent in the use of natural materials such as stone, wood and water is part of this choice, but so is the desire to emphasize, through an immediately recognizable language, the close relationship between the design and the landscape.