Three years after its completion the bastard store is doing very well… According to Architizer and Inc. the project is infact the first runner up in the  ‘World’s Coolest offices’ of year 2011 ranking. Find out more here and there.

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.

In the next few days Lorenzo Bini will participate in 2 collective talks with several other designers, 2 mini-lectures for a total of 30 minutes! The first  event is called ‘Alquimia’ and is going to take place at  studioBANANA in Calle Platano 14, Madrid, on the 20th of May at 18:00. The second date, which is called ‘Auto che? Autocostruzione!’ has been organized by Paolo Mestriner and will take place in Milan  at 10:00 on the 26th of May, Politecnico, classroom Y1.

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 week we went to a small gathering at the bastard store here in Milan. The Launch Party #29 has been perhaps the biggest edition of a recurring event that our friends at COMVERT organize to present their new products (which is mostly clothing, but they are also into delicious food…). It’s great to watch few videos showing how the space we have designed few years ago looks like today.

Before the summer we developed and delivered our proposal for SUKKAH CITY NYC 2010, a cleverly organized and very popular Design Competition. Although we haven’t been selected as one of the twelve winners, we are still in love with our project and therefore happy to make it public.

‘Build Your own Sukkah!’

This simple statement led us to the development of KOSHO – our design proposal – and persuaded us to build a 1:1 scale prototype to test its feasibility. Thanks to this experience we are not only skilled at building a second KOSHO in NYC, but also willing to share our knowledge and every necessary detail to make anyone else able to do the same at home.

As a consequence we decided that the best way to present KOSHO to the Competition Jury and to the Citizens of New York was to tell the story of how it was built once upon a time, in a hypothetical place, by three imaginary boys. 

The star of David – superimposition of two equilateral triangles – is the generative image of our Sukkah. The octahedron – polyhedron with eight triangular faces – is the three-dimensional materialization of our construction. A wooden fan is the triggering metaphor of our tectonic principle.

KOSHO is a simple, light, transportable, low-cost, kosher construction that meets the rules and regulations listed in the competition brief. KOSHO is small but comfortable, can be easily transported, quickly installed and dismantled.

KOSHO is a symmetrical polyhedron built through the juxtaposition of modular elements, but when perceived from dierent angles and in diverse light conditions, it appears as a dynamic and articulated structure. As the eye moves around, a multitude of slanting trajectories between the earth and the sky reveals the essence and the meaning of the construction.

If you want to know more…

View the COMPETITION PANEL (1.012 KB)
Download the PDF BOOK VERSION (1.960 KB)

Designed by:

Lorenzo Bini
Iacopo Boccalari
Claudia Brunelli
Francesca vargiu

Built by:

Lorenzo Bini
Iacopo Boccalari
Alberto Clerici

Shot by:

studiometrico and Francesca Pozzi

The images featured in this post are part of the presentation that studiometrico issued to Nike Italia on the 1st of April 2010. Download the COMPLETE PRESENTATION (5.800 KB) to find out more about our proposal. Check out FRESHNGOOD to see pictures of the shop – designed by Sartoria Comunicazione – that has opened in June.

studiometrico team:

Lorenzo Bini
Francesca Murialdo
Claudia Brunelli
Giorgio Diegoli
Cristina Foglia
Egidio Iovene
Valeria Vitali

UNPLUGGED ITALY, curated by Prof. Gennaro Postiglione and edited by LetteraVentidue is now available! The book originates from the exhibition and the lectures organized at the AHO last year and features 3 projects by studiometrico. You can browse a preview or buy the entire book here.