The project is the fruit of a complex process of study and reflection on the meaning of living in a historical city in the modern world and on the dialogue between new and old in old city centres.
The project involves a number of buildings, overlooking Via Orfeo, Via Borgolocchi and Via de’ Butteri, of which the oldest nucleus, dating from the late 19th century, was maintained with a retrofitting of the façade. Starting from this nucleus, the external compositional language develops over a further two blocks in a deliberately gradual passage from conservation to substitution. This initially makes reference to the stylistic features of the oldest building, reinterpreting its motifs and proportions in a modern key. It concludes, in the third block, by affirming an authentically contemporary architectural language.
The result is an urban environment project that respects tradition while having a strongly innovative intention, one that aims to understand and reinterpret the substance of the urban scene and adapt it to contemporary functionalities and languages.
In creating a total of 36 apartments, the project also had to come to terms with the relationship between collective space and private space, typical of collective residential buildings, making a study of views and terraces in a large internal courtyard/garden, reorganized to host an underground car park on two levels, with a delicate operation of moving and replanting trees and shrubs.

Location
Bologna, Italy

Year
2016

Area
5,100 sqm

Design team
Luigi Benatti, Matteo Serradimigni, Gabriele Marmiroli, Gabriele Corazza, Nicola Righini, Massimo Savini, Claudia Pacchiega, Andrea Talevi, Roberto Belloni, Patrizio Chiavarini, Roberto Ballardini

Client
Orfeo srl

Status
Completed

Photo
Davide Pierbellini, Fabio Mantovani