🏛️ Reviving History with Modern Touch: A Deep Dive into the Architectural Renewal at Piazza Italia 🏛️

The intervention concerns renovation and expansion by raising a building included in the detailed plan of private initiative. The building looks like the aggregate of several buildings that have stratified over time, mainly due to the succession of historical events including the bombings of WW2. The building is spread over four floors above ground in its highest portion and has an underground area adjacent to the square that houses old arched cellars. The project’s main intent is the recovery of the existing building, also through its reintegration into the lively urban and social square that revolves around Piazza Italia, an important area of the historic center of the municipality. Save this picture! The clients required a building in which different functions would find space and with the necessary potential to become a new attractive place for the city and its inhabitants. From a structural point of view, the entire building was designed to ensure seismic adaptation. The building has been redesigned in terms of the redistribution of functions for which it has always been intended, with the addition of a room used as a bistro, in a portion of the ground floor and with services in a part of the basement. In the remaining area of the ground floor, on the first and the second floors, the construction of a large commercial activity with related services is planned. The third floor is dedicated to the residential function, through the recovery and elevation for the construction of two apartments in total. The project also includes the elimination of differences in the height of the external areas and boundary walls to allow the pedestrian connection and continuity between the existing square and the pedestrian area that connects to the nearby street. It was also planned to build an extension of the basement with a partially opaque walkable roof, capable of capturing natural light and diffusing it inside the existing rooms through the modification of the existing openings which will be extended to the floor. The intervention also includes the reconstruction of the existing roof, damaged in the main building. The same "eaves height" has been kept for the part of the elevation that stands out above the buildings towards the square. The joints of the facing brick façades have been skived and sealed, then a transparent waterproofing and breathable treatment has been provided with the addition of a veiled color to uniform the facades. The intent to preserve the building and its main composition is accompanied by a highlighting of the "new" portions of the building and those most affected by changes in the openings that have a Cor-ten steel façade cladding, inspired by important restoration and conservative renovation interventions with extension. This material, which changes over time together with the architecture, is designed to bring to life the evolution of the building in all its components. To maintain consistency in the intervention, the same finish was maintained for other details.