The project is a volume born from the observation and study of the insertion context that determines its formal conformation. The starting parallelepiped is worked through cuts and folds that relate to the square and surrounding landscape elements, creating visual and sensory relationships that make the new block rationally included in the system of spatial relationships of the urban square.
The folding system of vertical surfaces makes the new block more proportionate to the surrounding buildings by promoting a dynamic volumetric aesthetic that determines a proportionate scale of the intervention.
The proposed intervention aims to maximize the accessibility of the project area jointly with the existing plaza by paying special attention to the distinction between driveway and pedestrian flows also through street furniture. A single-material edge podium, in which the new volume is inserted, contains a system of paths aimed at fostering permeability to the new and the existing historic building by connecting the height difference between the north and south facades. The podium emphasizes the area of intervention, in which care is taken to maintain the existing trees that act as a backdrop to the new building, and is linked to the reorganization of the south parking area for which a redistribution of parking stalls is proposed, with an increase in them, connected to but distinct from the pedestrian access paths to the building.
The new parking layout, combined with the work of streamlining the new block through the faceting of the exterior surface, allows the development of the pedestrian pathway on the entire perimeter of the complex by creating a pedestrian connection between the north and south facades, not present in the preliminary design, which erases the hierarchy of frontages by eliminating the concept of “back of the building” and improves the permeability to the complex for all users. The plan is organized according to a rational logic whereby service functions and automated mobility are gathered within a functional cue. Direct access to the new functional block occurs at the point of contact between the new and the existing building, emphasized by the formal alignment, with the existing building, of a glazed surface that becomes a hinge between the two blocks. The exposed connecting staircase characterizes and shapes the interior space in which natural light penetrates through the large targeted openings that mark the path connecting the different floors of the historic building. The transition between the two volumes is emphasized by a change of skin combined with an internal perspective narrowing that directs the flow of users to the entrance of the various rooms.
