PR 88 Project

Project Year
2015
Services
Urban redevelopment and architectural planning
Client
Privato

Urban redevelopment and architectural planning
Plans for urban redevelopment
Square, three blocks of buildings for residence and services (restaurant, fitness centre, Spa, cafeteria, garage)

Porto Rotondo, Olbia (OT) year 2013

The intervention consists in the redevelopment of a highly degraded area and includes the demolition of the existing buildings with the creation of new buildings
Genesis of the project
There are elements that have been considered binding
The acquired presuppositions are:
– the restoration and consolidation of the terrain
– the study of the natural lines (hillside/level area) and of the volumes and spaces of nearby buildings
– the study of the natural volumes and spaces
– the sign of and on the territory (between natural components and man-made ones)
– the study of characteristic building types and materials in the village
– the strict limitations in connection with the shape of the lot
– the perceived inclusion of the square in the project
The study of the context highlighted the intense natural connotation of the village
It is a matter of harmony between the two components, creating a declination between nature and urban structure, between the hillside and the town, between the natural vegetation and urban spaces
There is a transition from the density of the centre of Porto Rotondo, with episodes of urban open spaces such as squares and gardens, to the hillside overlooking the areas of the intervention
Water as a significant element whose presence makes itself felt even when it is not particularly evident: the dew in the woods on the hill, the underground water veins, the channelled streams that pour into the sea
These are elements that “speak”

Theme: From the hillside to the village
The significance of natural elements in a context that has undergone human intervention
Nature takes back its space
The emptiness that follows the passage of man: he disembowels, excavates, modifies, and wounds (with reference to the quarry that has left a visible incision on the hillside)
It is a question of “healing the wound” and easing the pain
The key of the project is to join the natural component to the man-made one. The man-made part is called forth from the density: the natural part withdraws from it and wants space, emptiness, breathing room. It creates a regenerating absence. That absence is in itself a reason for movement and cyclicity
Finiteness is the very nature of existence
Nothing is eternal except change
Birth, growth, deterioration and death. But then once more: birth, growth… it is a cosmic law
The approach is intentionally and deeply felt in its humility. The building does not have the expectation of remaining “forever”. It has in itself the propensity to abandon, to deteriorate as an opportunity for total regeneration

Terracing
The volumes develop in terraces, following the terrain as it climbs and descends. This is true both of the single blocks, as from floor to floor there is a backing away of the volumes in the direction of the hillside, and in the building complex

This terracing intends to connect the heights of the urban scale (mainly those overlooking the square), with the dwindling lines and floors of the natural inclination (the spaces follow the outlines of the hill in the background). The effect is obtained from the layering of floors that get smaller and smaller, but also from the green surfaces
The urban block is the natural one
The organism has been ideally subdivided into three blocks. The ends are seen as opposites: the urban element and the natural one. Between them there is an intermediate part intercepting both
The urban block
Volume A is the one that mediates the language of urban space
The lines that generate the volumes are deduced from the alignments with the existing buildings and the road network
Functions are mixed (commercial and residential) for the very purpose of intercepting the village vocation which combines the two. This combination makes it possible to have movement, connections and density. The identified sub-theme is that of a view on the square where the broad wooden porches face, overhanging towards the urban spaces. They are essential volumes that again bring up the theme of the porches in the Porto Rotondo buildings. Their language is dry and contemporary
These porches rest on a “fluctuating” base: a foundation with a glass front (the commercial sector)
For this reason, the overhangs are even more strongly highlighted
The “link” consists in the back and high parts, realised with a reinforced cement structure and ventilated facade, covered in wood and weathering steel
The natural block
Volume C is the one that mediates the language of natural space
It performs this function through treatment of the facades and of the floors: vertical and hanging gardens accompany the lines of the building to the hill on its border
The natural/urban block
Volume B is the intermediate one, both in the sense of its physical position and in its conceptual planning
The north side presents an alignment with the street and degrades the volumes little by little as we climb with a system of broad verandas that seem to splash green onto the façade
The south side ideally and physically follows the superficial curve of the terrain that we would have seen without the excavations for the quarry. Its profile is sinuous and flows along the lot
The façade treatment is “hard”, as though simulating the containment of the hillside
Stone designs an essential architecture from which openings rise sharply and in an apparently casual manner. They are imagined as slits through which we get a glimpse of the context, without paying particular attention to them

Architectural planning
Residential settlement with the creation of thirteen lodgings for commercial and popular buildings

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