Restoration of an Italianizing House
This Italianizing style house dates back to the year 1900 and is located in the colonial center of the City of Cordoba. The architectural work was included within the framework conditions of a work of conservation of architectural heritage, in accordance with the requirements established by Ordinance N 11,190, obtaining the Certificado de Edificabilidad Potencial Transferible (C.E.P.T.) (certificate of transferable, potential approved construction density) to be granted by Municipality of the City of Cordoba.
The building was uninhabited and the last known functional destination was three shop premises on the ground floor. It was an urban empty space in a dynamic, costly business area.
The expected functional use, in line with the surrounding area, is for business purposes and will be used to host a sports equipment company.
The ground floor will be used for exhibition purposes, following the show room model, while the First floor will house the administrative area of the business.
The refurbishment proposal intended to respect and to preserve architectural heritage in balance and harmony with functional use, according to a modern approach characterized by fluid spaces andseamless flooring in a wide, functional environment.
The first intervention was to clear constructions authorized to be demolished. Following a field survey of urban archeology, the structural stabilization process was carried out building an iron structure to support accessories.
The architecture box was consolidated and preserved with structural keys, together with the reappearance of the structure of wooden floors and wooden ceiling.
The original linear tracing of the staircase with independent access from the street was kept as the core structure of vertical circulation, without incorporating new elements.
The classic style façade was preserved and restored recovering every detail or ornament and eliminating any foreign body and object.
According to the characteristics of the house, a chromatic palette was chosen; surface finishing was employed with materials similar to the original ones.
The original paintings on the first floor walls were protected against exposure to users’ direct contact. Details of them are shown through window-like “tell-tales”.
Interestingly, this proposal through architectural intervention tries to create spatial continuity conditions as the sustaining structure, keeping in the rear façade walls of the covered patiojust the wall borders of the arcades that framed the original bays,freeing the rest of them.
Also in line with the idea of gaining fluidity and frame to show scale with no compromise on the interpretation of the intervened work, a suspended ceiling, separated from the wall borders of the dividing walls is suggested, permitting indirect natural light on the inside.
