Spazio 33 Competition, an open call addressed to everyone, has been launched! If you think you are good with chalks and freehand drawings… just click here.

Sunday the 5th of June at 12.00 o’clock there will be the opening of Spazio 33, a cafeteria & wine bar that we have refurbished through the transformation of an existing pavilion located in a small park. To have a proper celebration there will be the concert of the Siena Jazz School Ensemble, closing event of Novara Jazz 2011.
Find out more about this project here.

Part 1 – Ice Cream

Corrado’s ambition was to regenerate the whole garden through the transformation of the pavilion into a commercial activity, and the first idea was something in between an ice cream shop and a cafeteria. A tenant who was already running an ice cream shop – and was willing to expand his business – was found and the project started. Here are few images describing our design proposal.

Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Mara Brozzi
Claudia Brunelli
Gloria Ferrari
Francesca Vargiu
Valeria Vitali

photo by Iacopo Boccalari

Our last entry about the project ZUM was posted in July 2010, and that’s quite a long while… Nevertheless we have been constantly busy with the development of site works, so we think the time has eventually come to show some progress.
During the past months different persons collaborating with us have been shooting a good deal of photographs.
Take a look at them after the break…

On the  22^nd of June Francesca Pozzi came on site. The steel structure of the so-called ‘Block B’, an independent new construction placed on pilotis along the Eastern boundary of the courtyard, had already been completed and workers in white suits were busy painting black the bearing elements that will remain exposed. Demolition works were still going on in ‘Block A’ – the existing building – on the top floor and the old roof had been completely removed.

On the 29^th of June the new reinforced concrete beam on top of  the boundary walls of Block A had been completed. Everything was then ready for the installation of the new steel trusses of the roof. The steel frames for fixing the new windows were also ready to be walled up in Block A.

On the 13^rd of July, under the most unbearable Milanese heat, Carla Vitali was brave enough to show up on site after noon, climb the scaffolds and shoot these pictures describing the steel trusses being assembled and installed. More progress in Block B is also visible at this time with the completed montage of the outer sandwich panels.

On the 20^th of July Francesca Pozzi was back on site and shot some more pictures on Block A second floor as the steel trusses montage continued.

On the 26th of July, when everybody was leaving Milan in search for some shadow, the black structure of the roof was completed and casted its shadows on the second floor surface. The trusses, designed by studiometrico and developed by Ing. Marco Clozza, have been conceived not only to support the roof, but also to carry the weight of the new hanging mezzanines.

After the holiday break – on the 14^th of September – the sandwich panels had been placed and the Block A was eventually covered providing some shade to the workers. The hanging mezzanines corrugated iron sheets had been also layed out.

These pictures from the 21^st of September show the installed steel structures of the stairs leading to the mezzanines of Block A top floor. To transfer all the weight of the roof structure onto the existing pillars, the mezzanines are hanging from the steel trusses and the stairs are suspended by steel tubular elements.

On the 24^th of September Iacopo Boccalari, a talented student and a great handyman that was doing his internship at studiometrico giving an important contribution to our project KOSHO, showed up on site with his camera and its wide angle lens. His photographs render the size and proportions of Block A and Block B interior spaces. Thanks Iacopo! You are really able to provide the right tools in the right moment…

These photographs were shot by Carla Vitali with a beautiful autumn light on the 20^th of October and show for the first time the exterior of Block A after the removal of the scaffolds as well as the newly installed galvanized steel structure of Block A’s staircase toward the inner courtyard.

During her last visit on the 22^nd of November Francesca Pozzi depicted the progress of Block A: the galvanized steel structure of the stairs, the outdoor corridors and the elevator, the newly assembled sandwich panels façade toward the courtyard and the black framed windows on the street. By that time gypsum boards had already made their appearance on site as demonstrated by few images shot inside Block B.

The completion of this project has been postponed by few months, but we are confident everything will be done before Easter!

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli
Michela Fancello

Design Consultant:

Gennaro Postiglione

Structures:

Marco Clozza (Atelier LC)

previous posts about this project:

ZUM – 1

ZUM – 2

ZUM – 3

Last year we posted about studiometrico‘s involvement in the Operation Fornebu with bkark, 6a and jcla. Long time has passed by and unfortunately we haven’t got that competition. Nevertheless we had great time, intense design sessions with fantastic people and – we believe – a very strong proposal.
Find out more after the break.

Satellite view

The Site

Placed in the middle of the Fornebu peninsula, the project area measured 70.000 sqm and used to host several airport facilities. Some huge hangars and storage buildings had been placed on a large concrete slab ‘strong enough to carry the weight of an aircraft’. The huge ‘table’ was also an efficient solution to provide a generous horizontal surface and a large underground area on a rocky and discontinuous terrain. As the City airport moved to a new location in Gardermoen the area experienced a quick adaptive reuse: most of the hangars became storage buildings serving the Oslo ships, another one was turned into a quite surreal indoor golf court, then the developers understood the site had more potential… The 6 invited teams were asked to design a masterplan for the area organizing 575 new dwellings and a large surrounding green environment. Architects were allowed to clear the site from existing buildings, while the concrete platform with its solid bearing structure and generous underground space, had to be preserved as an available tabula rasa to support new constructions.

Oslo Fjord seen from Fornebu

Eastern access under the platform

The Mothership

The Hangar on the Western corner

Eastern access under the platform

Cocrete column

Approaching the site from South West

Existing airport facilities

Existing airport facilities

Existing airport facilities

Containers above the platform

Team members on the cherry picker

The masterplan

The orography of the Oslo Fjord on a large territorial scale has been the main inspiration to conceive and develop our landscape strategy. The uniform orientation of hills, rocks and small islands appears as the generative factor of the main direction of the project area. The lines observed on the territory becomes ‘landscape strips’, large portion of landscaped terrain available for different program and diverse vegetation. One strip features orchards, another hosts allotments for residents, a strip presents playgrounds for kids while another has denser patches of trees. A strip in the middle of the site is left empty, exposes the existing asphalt and stands at a lower level, it resembles a runway and works as main public space to connect different parts of the site.

Orography orientation and landscape strategy

Masterplan (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

Sunny orchards and shadow gardens

Landscaping the concrete platform

Landscape (click to open)

The (oversized) Villas

To respond to the fairly high density requested by the client, to comply with the regulations that set a maximum height of 5 storeys and to preserve a good balance between buildings and landscape, we propose an unconventional type of construction that is neither a villa nor a condominium. Fornebu is close enough to Oslo to be a desirable place to live for Oslo citizens and has direct access to the beautiful outskirts of  Oslo Fjord. For these reasons is an attractive neighbourhood for young families, but the high number of dwellings requested doesn’t really allow to satisfy the dreamed lifestyle of many couples with kids: to have an independent villa with a private garden. Our oversized villas are 4 or 5 storeys buildings with 4 corner apartments on each floor. There aren’t private gardens but each house stands in the middle of a public intimate green environment.

Landscape

Indoor living

Outdoor living

Bedroom

3d model

Planometric view (click to open)

Perspective view

Perspective view

The Apartments

Each house has a central core with staircase and elevator and a wide corridor that provides access to the different apartments. The living room is the most generous space and benefits from the best exposure to the sun and the best view toward the landscape. Each apartment features 2 or 3 bedrooms and a continuous 2.5m wide balcony, an extension of the living room that can be particularly enjoyable during the never ending Scandinavian summer evening. The deep covered balcony also allows natural light into the apartment in the winter when the sun rays stretch horizontally and natural light is desirable. To respond to the problem of the cold bridges that suspended balconies imply, the building is split in two: the ‘scaffold like’ outer structure of the balconies is propped against the solid and fully insulated inner volume of the building bu remains separated and independent. While the balcony structure is a discontinuous solid wood construction, the interior slabs of the floors are made of in situ cast concrete.

Balcony structure and insulated core

Square – 3 beds (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

Square – 2 beds (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

Octagon – 2 beds (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

Circle – 2 beds (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

Indoor living room

Outdoor living room

Unité d’aviation

In our design proposal the industrial character of the site is perceived as a positive value and a significant aspect and some of the traces of the past are therefore kept and enhanced. One of the hangar, a massive concrete structure organized on different storeys with a rectangular plan shows the potential to be refurbished and transformed into a very special housing block: the ‘Mothership’. Norwegian vernacular architecture is used as reference to conceive and develop a variety of new wooden house types that can be inserted into the concrete skeleton and organized on different levels as an articulated fragment of the urban fabric of a Norwegian historical city. The space of the existing hangar is not completely occupied by the new inserted units, an interior public space, private patios and light wells are left open. The renovated building is an opportunity to suggest different (and more urban) lifestyles within the new housing development, bypasses the uncomfortable ’5 storeys rule’ and claims the right to be kept and preserved as an unique piece of industrial archaeology.

Conceptual drawing

The Mothership ‘as found’

Structure

Maquette

Maquette

Maquette

Mothership unit (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

N-S section (click to open)

E-W section (click to open)

Perspective view (click to open)

studiometrico team:

Lorenzo Bini
Alberto Clerici
Simone De Iacobis
Gloria Ferrari

previous posts about this project:

Operation Fornebu

To describe the development of our project ZUM, we are very happy to publish a new set of pictures that Francesca Pozzi has been shooting for us on site in the last months.

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli

Design Consultant:

Gennaro Postiglione

Structures:

Marco Clozza (Atelier LC)

previous posts about this project:

ZUM – 1

ZUM – 2

Last June we published a first post about this project for the transformation of an industrial building into offices to rent in Milan. Then we have been silent… but not idle.

Last fall we have been busy with the tender, in October Cometal S.p.A. has been appointed by the client as the main contractor and  in December the project eventually went on site! We are now able to publish some pictures showing the result of the main demolition phase and we hope to keep on posting as the works progress through the whole year.

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli

Design Consultant:

Gennaro Postiglione

Structures:

Marco Clozza (Atelier LC)

previous posts about this project:

ZUM – 1

SEA – the company that runs Italian Airports – launched a 2 phases competition for the ‘new gate’ of the Airport of Malpensa. The brief, addressed to teams composed by architects and artists, defined a site between terminal and train station, a budget and some programmatic ambitions. The ‘Gate’ had to be conceived both as transit and pause space, function as infrastructure, be perceived as a landmark and behave as an exhibition space. Together with Massimo Bartolini and VudafieriSaverino we developed our (losing) proposal…

Premise

Novalis noted that “The curve is the triumph of the freedom on the rule”, and Oscar Niemeyer keeps on explaining: “I am attracted by the free and sensual curve.The curve I encounter in the mountains and in the rivers of my Country, in the clouds of the sky, in the waves of the ocean, in the body of the favourite woman. The universe is made of curves, the curved universe of Einstein.”

A gate for Milan

Our proposal is a permeable and autonomous space, defined and circumscribed by a curve with constant radius: a circle. The curve is strong in this context because is completely unusual among the surrounding infrastructures. The curve introduces a dynamic and relaxing ‘field strength’ that becomes the focus of its environment. The ‘perfect’ shape of the circle gains another significance at the architectural scale. The 2-dimensional perimeter carved on the territory is extruded into the flat volume of a 44 m wide and 5 m tall cylinder. The interior become organized space and, therefore, architecture: a circular room with a 30 m diameter flanked by two curved corridors that meet were the space opens to the terminal on one side an to the train station on the other.

Revolving door

This circular space is occupied by a revolving door tied to a structural pillar and constituted by 5 wings, each wing is 14 m long and features few colored glass panels. The revolving door is the metaphor of a transition, and of the world. It’s an open boundary and recalls the image of hotels, theaters, public spaces, meetings and travels… but it’s also the alias of a compass tracing a profile on a sheet of paper, of a radar scanning the sky and monitoring the airplanes traffic.

Fast curves

The curved corridors around the central room work – paradoxically – as fast connections. The outer boundary is composed by a bearing structure combined with colored glass panels. A screen saver is constantly projected onto the boundary of the central room: landscapes, movies, fragments and memories of Milan and the Milanese territory. The shadows of the passengers melt in this images as in a magic lantern.

5:PM

When the mechanical movement of the revolving door stops, 5 rooms materialize and become available spaces for art exhibitions, the ‘kaleidoscope-like’ space become background, the transit turns into pause. 5:PM is the name of our proposal for the ‘New Gate’ of Milan, it’s a revolving door with 5 wings, it’s the time when labor ends a leisure starts, it’s when computers are shut down and people goes out, it’s the right time for departures… and arrivals.

Plan (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

Competition panel (1.272MB)

The Competition Team

Massimo Bartolini
Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli
Roberta Rizzi

Norwegian friends Brendeland & Kristoffersen arkitekter have invited  6a architects, JCLA and studiometrico to team up and join a challenging urban design competition in Oslo, Norway.

A 70.000 sqm area – part of the dismissed Fornebu airport – will be transformed to host 575 new dwellings. IT Fornebu – a Norwegian developer – has first launched the competition and then short-listed 6 teams to compete and produce a design proposal by the end of January. Here the complete list of the competitors:

• April Arkitekter (NO), Helinco Architects (FI), Marjamaa Landskap (NO)
• Brendeland & Kristoffersen Arkitekter AS (NO), 6a architects Ltd (UK), studiometrico (IT), Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects (UK)
• Code Arkitektur AS (NO), Aurora Landskap AS (NO)
• Arkitektkontoret GASA AS (NO), Askim/Lantto Arkitekter AS (NO), Grindaker AS Landskapsarkitekter (NO), Erichsen & Horgen AS (NO)
• MVRDV (NL), Tupelo Arkitektur AS (NO), Bjørbekk & Lindheim Landskapsarkitekter (NO), Sweco
• Arkitektfirmaet C.F. Møller (DK)

On the 19^th of November the five teams that will compete for the 2^nd phase of the Architecture Competition for the new Piazza G. Verdi in La Spezia (Italy) were announced. studiometrico and artist Massimo Bartolini had developed a design proposal that was not short-listed by the Jury…

The Project

The competition challenge to organize a new urban square without giving up cars has been undertaken with a visionary proposal that consisted in the realization of a 200 m long infrastructural building able to manage traffic in a flexible way and to become a powerful and iconic element for the city. The superimposition of a new square on the existing one on ground level would have provoked – in the vision of the designers – a variety of uses and situations.

aerial view of the new square

the lower square

the upper square

the new square

the new building

The Competition Panel

download pdf [3.120 KB]

The Competition Team

Artist
Massimo Bartolini

studiometrico

Lorenzo Bini
Francesca Murialdo

Erica Borsa
Claudia Brunelli
Corinne Gallotti
Roberta Rizzi