This project for the substitution of a public housing block seriously damaged by the 2009 earthquake begins with the necessity to maintain the profile, areas and dimensions of the original building, with the added objective of giving the building a new identity. The ‘linear’ arrangement remains unvaried, with four stories above grade. The ground floor features garages, cellars and shared technical spaces; the first, second and third floors feature two large apartments per floor, symmetrical to the central stairwell. Regularising the external envelope – restored to a simple parallelepiped by eliminating the small loggias present on various sides – was a guiding objective of the project, together with the creation of large terraces by combining open spaces. A long balcony on the main elevation serves the living spaces and defines the appearance of the south-facing elevation. Terraces are screened by a continuous system of technical blinds: operable and coloured vertical shading devices that animate the façade and modulate the permeability impermeabillity of views and natural light. The north-facing elevation is instead characterised by service loggias that design two regular and symmetrical axes,
with coloured external parapets referencing the colours of the shading blinds on the main elevation. The roof was imagined as a complex geometry of six pitches that reinterpret the classical form of a pavilion roof along the regular perimeter thanks to a simple shift in the ridge line. In addition to this new profile, the entire volume is redefined by the continuity of geometries and materials that merges the external elevations into the sloping planes of the roof.
