The project involves the total re-development of a nineenth-century house forming part of an unbroken street front, plus the creation within the inner garden of a new structure. The aim to give clear and confident expression to the presence of an unusual facility within an urban context that is, at the moment, rather a jumble of surviving rural building and more recent development.
The project envisages the creation of exhibition spaces, shops, housing and other areas of flexible use that can be adapted to the varying needs of the clients.
The two blocks concerned are very different from a formal point of view: one is envisaged as a large showcase/piazza giving onto Via Andezeno; the other is a sort of free-standing pavilion within the garden, which is open to the public and can be glimpsed from the road.
The redevelopment of the street-front structure envisages the maintenance of all the various characteristic features of the central portion (vaulted roofing, window/door frames, plasterwork and decoration). To the sides, the outline of the original building will be changed by a floor-to-roof window looking towards the street and a shimmering surface of copper installed on the countryard side of the structure. The interior is open and hinges around a central space that reaches all the way to the roof.
Crossed by walkways, that space is intended to contain largescale light installations. The window wall will be cooled by a thin veil of water that will transform the entire front of the building into one monumental fountain. Thus the street becomes a sort of piazza, a public space that is a point of reference for the entire urban context.
For its part, the pavilion within the garden - a fluid and articulated volume raised on large concrete pillars - is faced with rough brick that gives it a very tactile quality.
Finally, the garden itself. This will also contain a public parking space for those visiting the atelier. Thanks to sliding glass panels, this garden can also be linked directly with the large open space within the shopping/exhibition area; hence it becomes the ideal location of open-air installations and events.
