After a neverending year of sketches, design, writings, phone calls, meetings, documents and contracts, next week studiometrico is going to go on site with its very first ‘built from scratch’ project. A 140 sqm private house will be located on a hilly terrain nearby Piacenza (70 km south of Milan) and inserted within a group of existing buildings and rural facilities. The house has been designed for a mature couple that loves nature, sustainable energy, wine and… bricks. The house should be completed before summer 2009 and the project should then continue with the realization of a new wine cellar. We are very happy to publish some images and drawings of this project.

Interior views of the house:

Overall plan:

Ground floor plan:

Mezzanine plan:

Sections:

Few months after their move into their new home, Those Lazy Italians at Bastard, with the help and guidance of Marco Clozza (a.k.a. The Engineer), are eventually busy with the construction of the Bastard Bowl, their spectacular and hazardous ultimate recreative device. Daily updates of the construction works are available here.

See also previous posts about this project:

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 2

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 3

Casacomvert!

The Bam Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Francesca Murialdo
Valentina Cocco
Erica Borsa

Other related posts: BAM | Idea competition

On the 3rd of April studiometrico submitted a design proposal for BAM, an invited idea competition for the re-use of three historical centers along the italian Adriatic Coast. Studiometrico was asked by the Architecture School of Ascoli Piceno, University of Camerino to produce an Architectural Manifesto describing how the half-abandoned town of Marano could be revitalised. In our proposal Marano is transformed into a 13 hectares Retail Park at exclusive use of the A14 highway that stretches along the Italian East Coast. The results of the competition should be made public before the end of April…

See the entire Manifesto here

Prof. Nicola Flora, who’s currently teaching in Ascoli Piceno (Italy), has invited few italian architects with different backgrounds (including Nicola Pagliara and Umberto Riva) to talk about a built residential project for private clients. On the 1st of April we are going to open progetto (in) materiale presenting to a group of architecture students our favourite (and very first) house: the one with ‘garden and caves’ that, although not completely finished, has been posted few times on our blog.

After a long trip from Bangalore, India to the North-East of Italy, the Lace Fence Pergola has reached its final destination! Designed by Joep Verhoeven from Demakersvan, is the very first lace fence that is 100% made in India. Few days ago the structure has been delivered and installed on the site it has been conceived for. The Pergola is now part of a 7.500 sqm terrain that studiometrico is transforming step by step into a very special landscape with many features to discover… See more pictures of the mountage of the Pergola here.

Other posts about this project:

Gardens between apple trees

Gardens between apple trees | 2

studiometrico has moved! We have started the new year in a new office space in Via Fontanesi 4, 20146 - Milan. We also have a new phone number: +39 02 45498389

We are finally able to post an ‘almost’ complete set of pictures and drawings concerning a project that has kept us busy for more than one year: The new home of Comvert s.r.l, the italian clothing company that produces and distributes Bastard. Few years ago Comvert asked studiometrico to look for a location for its new headquarter in Milan; the place should have been large enough to host offices for 15-20 people, services, a big storage for their products and an indoor skatebowl for employees, team riders and friends. In spring 2005 we eventually found a Cinema theater from the 50’s that really suited Comvert needs and few months ago - after the conclusion of the refurbishment works - the company has moved into its new home: Casacomvert!

Conceptual diagrams

We have tried to establish few principles that could help us to deal with the existing space: the cinema theater designed by Ing. Mario Cavallè has been perceived as something to preserve, a valuable example in a city like Milan that has apparently forgotten how to produce ‘good architecture’. The following diagrams are a brief attempt to establish basic rules to add new layers within the existing environment without overwriting it, our 5 rules to avoid succumbing to architecture.

Ground floor plan

On the ground level plan - the former foyer of the cinema - constituted by a regular square room facing the street - will be turned into the first bastard flagship store. The ‘half-moon’ shaped space, flanked by two curved staircases leading to the upper balcony, has been transformed into offices for the administrative department. Through this joint element is possible to enter the space of the former pit, now occupied by the two storey metal structure of the storage. Few service spaces, toilets, kitchen, an archive, an enclosed office, and an access courtyard complete the ground floor layout.

Longitudinal section

This schematic longitudinal section shows in a sequence from left to right: the bastard store and the administrative department in the spaces of the former foyer, the creative department built on top of the balcony, the storage that occupies the area of the old pit and, on top of it, the skate bowl that is going to be built in the first one or two months of 2008.

Upper floor plan

The upper level plan shows the creative department built as a number of wooden platforms of different height on the existing balcony and the 144 sqm skate bowl that is going to be installed above the storage structure.

Constructive diagrams

The following Diagrams explain the constructive system of the platforms that constitute the office spaces of the creative department.

• Steel columns have been placed on the concrete bearing structure of the balcony
• Horizontal steel beams have been welded to the vertical columns
• Wooden beams and osb panels have been bolted on the horizontal beams
• 3-layered wooden panles have been placed to clad the platforms and to create furnished banisters.

Maquette of creative department

The office spaces above the existing balcony have been conceived and developed with a 1:50 scale cardboard maquette. The actual design, which is described by the previous diagrams, is eventually different from the one described by the maquette. The final version has been infact adjusted and re-organized on the existing structure of the balcony. The main reason is that the full comprehension of the bearing structure of the balcony was only possible as demolition works started.

Pictures of the buidling site

The following pictures are a selection of the ones we have been shooting during our visits to the building site. The first sequence of photographs focuses on the construction of the creative department platforms, which has been the most challenging and exciting part of the project.

The administrative department offices on the ground floor have been realized with same materials and similar constructive principle. On the slightly sloping marble floor of the foyer we have added another wooden platform that could leave the existing pavement untuched, provide a flat surface and host electrical installations.

Pictures of the ’squatted’ headquarters

At the end of the summer Comvert has eventually managed to move in its new home! Nevertheless the project is not completely finished… The bastard store and the bastard bowl will come very soon and we are still working on a good deal of finishings, furnitures and details. We are therefore not really able (but then again, shall we ever be?..) to show jet those slick pictures that you often see on architecture magazines where everything is clean, neat and into place… Comvert staff was just too eager to take control of their new headquarters and… they did!

see also previous posts about this project:

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 2

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 3

Each of the 100 steel legs with square section has a top plate welded with a specific angle.

The mdf wood panels are bolted on the steel plates and joined together.

Two sculptures and a light screen for the projection of a video of the artist are placed in a precise sequence on the curved surface of the ramp.

Pictures of the ramp during the construction.

Picture of the installation as shown at ‘Step 2′. The exhibition will be open to the public until the 3rd of February.

credits:

structural engineer: Ing. Marco Clozza / Atelier-lc
Contractor: Oasi Allestimenti s.r.l.

Around the house there will be few hortus for vegetables enclosed by low fences in rusted metal network.

The Taxus baccata evergreen hedge on the Western boundary of the property.

The fence and the Carpinus betulus hedge on the Northern boundary of the property.

The old Vine pergola and the soil and netal stripes along the Southern side of the house.

Detail of the paved area under the pergola.

The row of Fraxinus excelsior trees along the Western boundary of the property.

The stone paved ‘piazza’ on the Western side of the house.

The ‘underground garden’

Overal view toward the Western boundary.

The ‘terraced’ garden on the Eastern side of the house.

Joep Verhoeven from Demakersvan has spent a long time in India to manage the construction of a beautiful ‘Lace Fence Pergola’ that he has specially designed for our gardens. The Pergola has been already shipped to Italy and should be installed on site before the end of the year!