RECOVERY OF A HISTORIC BUILDING
BUILDING RENOVATION OF A 1700'S BUILDING
Place: Pisa
Exemplary renovation project, inspired by the criteria of restoration and redevelopment, carried out on an eighteenth century building, located in the heart of the city, near Piazza dei Miracoli, in a negligible part remodeled in later times.
The intervention, foreseen in itself on a delicate reality, was complicated by the current legislation, due to the need to change the intended use: the new project confirmed the vocation of the property and the residential urban planning, creating ten real estate units in place of the administrative offices of the headquarters of a well-known Pisan company.
The façade on the street front had retained its original score and the fixtures present, in aluminum, both external and internal, were replaced with traditional wooden fixtures, for which it was careful to study the design, based on other existing examples. ; moreover, the intervention did not change the existing openings, except in the attic floor, an elevation built in later times, where the openings were redesigned to align them with those existing on the lower floors.
The caution used prevented interventions on the horizontals, for the most part supported by vaulted structures. Their appearance led to classify them as crap vaults, which however are often not load-bearing, made of poor and light materials; the investigations in progress have revealed load-bearing vaults, which support the upper floors by means of low walls, classifiable as barrel vaults with pavilion heads. The choice of this technique was originally dictated by the need for representative spaces, easily decorated or frescoed, but of limited height.
The internal load-bearing walls have undergone the opening of very few doorways, with limited light, in the double objective of not worsening the anti-seismic performance and not distorting the internal distribution.
The interior design was applied to the solution of interventions in environments with vaulted roofs; the case is represented by the insertion of bathrooms, made with non-invasive and easily removable techniques, in etched glass and wooden partitions, so as not to alter the perception and integrity of the original space.
The vertical distribution is guaranteed by a large representative staircase, with three flights and a fourth side consisting of the distribution gallery on the floors and illuminated by a skylight; the horn had already been equipped with a lift.
The building has a floor, partially underground along the road, which, due to the course of the surrounding land, remains entirely above ground at the back: this part of the premises has been assigned the exclusive property of the apartment above on the ground floor. , which was connected with an internal staircase.
The other underground rooms are intended for service cellars to the apartments and can be reached by a narrow staircase, which suggested the installation of a freight elevator, also accessible by cycles and scooters, placed in a protected side of the large entrance hall.