06_Project for a residential block with high energy efficiency (CasaClima) | Cdm architetti associati

NAME

Project title: Project for a residential block with high energy efficiency  in”CasaNova” area, EA2 – Bolzano

Recommending party
The project has been submitted by: Tomaso Macchi Cassia – cdm architetti associati

LOCATION
Country: Italy

City: Bolzano

Address: via Nicolò Rasmo

AUTHOR

Designer or design team architects: Cdm architetti associati:
Edoardo Cappuccio
Giuseppe Donato
Tomaso Macchi Cassia

DETAILS  

Plot Area: 5.891 sq.m.

Gross Area: 24.892 sq.m. (14.552 above ground+ 10.340 underground)

Of which residential: 100 %
Public/communal areas:  0%
Facilities for the public: 0%
Business/trade: 0%
Offices: 0%

Number of residential units: 136
Typology of users: families
Total building costs Euros: 18.450.000,00 €
Building Cost = Total Bulding Cost / Gross Area: 1087,00 €/sq.m.
Floor area ratio = Gross Area / Plot Area: 2,47
Work started on date: Saturday, 1st November 2008
Work completion date: Tuesday, 1st November 2011

OWNERSHIP 

Promoter: IPES – Istituto per l’Edilizia Sociale della Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano
Allotment rule: Graded list
Reduction cost percentage compared to the market value:
– assignment: not indicated
– rent: 30 %

Description of the project: 

Our project for lot EA2 is the result of an international competition launched by IPES – (Institute for Council Housing in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano) after Bolzano City Council adopted the master plan drawn up by the Dutch architect Frits van Dongen and his team Cie Architeckten.

Architectural Aspects
The approved implementation plan involves a series of very precise regulations aimed at reinforcing the design philosophy underscoring “Castle-style” residential blocks consisting of 3/4 buildings set around an open tree-lined courtyard.
Following the numerous Plan restrictions, the project focuses on the unitary nature of the lot by working on the concept of a block, taken not as a set of buildings placed on a platform around a central courtyard, but as one simple architectural feature on which various “subtraction” operations will be carried out.
This interpretation means all the outside surfaces are treated differently from the inside surfaces, uncovered by the subtraction operations carried out the original structure.
Consequently the project draws on solutions involving different degrees of openness for working on the internal elevations facing onto the courtyard compared to the external elevations in contact with the rest of the neighbourhood, underlining the distinctive nature and significance of the main front.
The desire to emphasise the unitary nature of the project generates one single compositional register for the façade capable of incorporating the different apertures. This approach allows different patterns of windows for each apartment, also making it possible to introduce special features at certain specific planimetric points so as to standardize all the elevations. One single collimation plan has been devised for the roofs, so that the entire structure is more effectively grasped as one unitary architectural feature, treating the block as an “excavated structure”.
As regards the different height levels and degrees of exposure to the sun, all the various roof levels are treated like a fifth elevation of the buildings. The GRC prefabricated panels covering the entire complex have also been used for the roofs, which are fitted with “green widows” composed of terraces and garden roof areas. 

Typological flexibility – Spatial plan
The fact that the functional programme calls for great flexibility and different types of apartments for each building has been catered for by placing the stairways parallel to the façade. As well as potentially serving a third apartment, this option also allows the size of the neighbouring apartments to be freely altered. The landing and dividing wall between the apartments are actually shifted to vary the size of the individual apartments.
Being located inside the main building means the entire extension of the outside facades is fully available for lighting the apartments, guaranteeing a free elevation design from an architectural viewpoint.
The plan is to construct 137 apartments, in accordance with the typologies referred to in the IPES regulations, distributed through the various buildings.
There will be 218 parking spaces in the two underground levels and a corresponding number of cellars serving the various apartments.