RENOVATION WITH EXPANSION OF A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING
The area subject to intervention is located outside the historical center and the city walls of Treviso, in a residential and private offices area that can be defined as an extension of the so-called "garden city". It is part of those areas of the city that had residential expansion in the period between the two world wars.
This is a renovation with demolition and reconstruction on the same site as an already residential building, with the result of 6 residential units. The project develops over 4 floors above ground. The project setting provides for an entrance to the ground from the east through a "wedge-shaped” entrance hall to the apartments bordered by two load-bearing walls leading to stairs and lift. On the ground floor, on the north side, 6 garages have been placed and, on the south side, the unit which has private access and enjoys its own private outdoor area. On the first and second floor there are two apartments per level, while a single residential unit has been created in the attic.
The built volume is compact, consisting of a base corresponding to the ground floor and, on the upper floors carved into the corners, by large loggias and terraces, necessary to create a dialogue with the facing Viale Verdi, in the logic of reaffirming the green vocation of this part of the city outside the walls. In detail, therefore, the building consists of a base, a facade and a eaves frame, as in the rules of architecture. The base will be coated with "satin brass" color to highlight the part of the attachment to the ground. The façade, on the other hand, will be plastered and painted using the traditional technique called “velatura” (a sort of glazing with double color brushing), adopting a lead gray color that deliberately contrasts with the base and emphasizes the architectural features of the intervention. The façade also enjoys a play of "undulation" in horizontal headbands, generated by splayings that connect the window holes to the external surface in an attempt to represent the thickness of the perimeter wall. A sort of excavation that modulates the surface of the façade, breaking the consistency of its flatness. The large flower boxes on the façade return to using the color of the base which wants to give these projections greater formal lightness. The crowning roof of the building is covered with zinc sheet.
The building undergoing renovation, in the 60s of the last century, has undergone a heavy transformation, consisting of an elevation, with the addition of an entire floor, effectively replacing the original semi-detached house which was originally two floors outside land. This intervention of the 1960s changed the perception and relationship with the surrounding buildings, amplified in the following years by the construction of the nearby and neighboring Court, a building that is completely out of scale and out of context in this city. The lot of the new design proposal is positioned as a hinge/connection between an area composed of buildings of two/three levels above ground and the oversized volume of the public building: the Court indeed. The outline of the four facades represents the theme of the excavations and the section and its language is strongly and deliberately functional. The plans are exhibited through the use of horizontal bands that contain the windows, according to a positioning logic for the need for ventilation/natural lighting. The two heads east and west show in the upper part of the elevation the theme of the building section which is defined on the roof by two ridge beams that contain a flat part of the roof. This theme of the plan figure of the "wedge" used to access the building is repeated on the roof to form a particular wooden structure. It is therefore evident, even in the two short facades, this particular shape. The overall mass of the building represents a sort of large block excavated in several areas; they define opportunities for physical and visual relationship with the surroundings and represent the views that make us perceive pieces of this part of the city from the rooms of daily living.
