A green hearth for Perugia
F.B.M.architecture student’s competition project for a mixed use area in Perugia. Finalist project awarded with honorable mention.
Barcelona, Spain, 2007
Design Team: Arch. D. Roth, Arch. Angelo Marelli, Arch. M. Petrucci, Arch. M. Bodino, Arch. A. Galbiati; Collaborator: A. Vannini
The proposed project is the result of a series of reflections dealt by the group not only about the intervention relationship with the urban environment, but also on its landscape level relations. Without strong built presences, we concluded that we could deal directly with the movement of the hilly territory and establish a dialogue with it; so we tried to create an exception, with a strong image, and therefore its own identity, in order to become a new center, a new reference point for citizens.
The first problem was to understand what is today a urban centre: socially is a place to meet people, where perform specific activities and also a place where you can recognize yourself . An architectonically defined space, thought to ensure the possibility to perform all of these activities. Identity and centrality , reference and image, space and surface, order and chaos; all keywords, sometimes in direct conflict each other, all included in what became the final design concept.
The idea of reating a place, or a three-dimensional space, starting from the reduction to a set of simple surfaces, has led us to adopt as a module the triangular shape. This concept is firstly used as the basic element for the generation of a regular mesh and then evolved into a set of plans, related each other, to create a complex space.The spatial articulation of the surfaces define different areas connected to different activities, whether static or dynamic, through the use of paths and open spaces and consequently are not the solids who define the empty spaces but vice versa.
Therefore the concept starts by the design of open spaces that become places of location or stasis, show or play, relax or interpersonal relationships, which articulated allow the creation of private and public function.Some of these pedestrian routes are raised from the ground level and allow people to rise from the immediate context and to approach the surrounding hills landscape. At the same time, they also create a protected and flexible interior space, which allows to be used by continuously changing functions and users.This set of ramps creates a surface that surrounds the area, giving a formal unity and overturning the classic function of the coverage element; no longer treated as simple completion of a building, but as a base structure for the entire project configuration. As a closure of this space was located a cultural center, an element which by the nature of services offered, stands as an attractor pole and possible engine for a qualitative improvement of the neighborhood.
Regarding the residential theme, we reflected on what should be the characteristics of today's contemporary residence: sustainability, flexibility and expandability. We analyzed the principle of flexibility through the design of the simplex accommodation. In this we studied a system of sliding panels and retractable furniture systems able to divide a very large room in different domestic environments depending by the needs. Starting from the initial type, two prototypes of housing were then developed, a duplex and a triplex; main feature of these is the presence of double or triple height spaces in the living room, this gave us the possibility to freely manage the façades.
