Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. Moscow.
Friday 17th of May 2013 09:35:08 AM Thursday 16th of May 2013 09:35:06 AM
The sculpted parallelepiped
Santa Croce sull’Arno (Firenze) - Italy
Studio Architettura Pellegrini, Alberto Pellegrini e Guido Morelli - Edilizia residenziale
Crema Marfil Select Active 60x120 cm
White Ground Active, Beige Ground Active 60x60 cm + 60x30 cm
Quarzite Ceniza Extreme Active 75x75 cm : 6000 mq (ca.)
The project consists in upgrading the old tanning works in Santa Croce sull’Arno, which is now out of use. The job is quite complicated, since the owner has decided to completely demolish the existing building with its annexes and build a new structure on the site, partly recovering the existing surface areas and volumes. The project takes into account the roads and composition of the ground lot, and the need for a small local supermarket on the ground floor.
The building has four storeys above ground as well as an underground storey which houses the storage areas for the residents and part of the supermarket carpark. The building is a large closed parallelepiped, while the north eastern side is articulated and excavated as a series of walkways, terraces and stairways.
The building will house the local supermarket as well as apartments of various sizes, for both office and residential use. The idea is to create a large stone parallelepiped, sculpted and excavated internally to create the necessary openings into the rooms, which mostly open outwards with full height windows with wood and aluminium frames and thermal glass.
The bearing structure is composed of a poured grid in reinforced concrete laid out in a rectangular 6.00x6.00 grid. The shell is composed of traditional insulated masonry, covered externally with Crema Marfil Select Active porcelain stoneware slabs. All the main outer walls, including the interior ones facing the walkways and private terraces, are also coated with the same Active material. The floors of the terraces, common walkways and private lawns, and the roof itself, all use Quarzite Ceniza Extreme Active porcelain stoneware. The interiors of the apartments are floored with Beige Ground Active slabs while the supermarket uses White Ground Active 60x60 cm for a total coverage of 1,146 m2.
Special attention has been paid to the flat roof, also covered with Fiandre porcelain stoneware as indicated above, which houses the air conditioning plant for the entire building and the solar panels.
