Recommending party
The project has been submitted by:
Cristiano Picco Architetto
LOCATION
Country: Italy
City: Torino
Address: Corso Mortara
AUTHOR
Designer or design team architects:
Cristiano Picco Architetto
DETAILS
Lot surface area: 6873 m2
Total area of the project: – m2
Of which residential: 6476 m2 Public/communal areas: 397 m2 Facilities for the public: – m2 Business/trade: – m2 Offices: 190 m2
Number of residential units: 77 Typology of users: families, old aged people, other
Construction costs (euro/square metre): 1200 €/m2
Work started on date: 06/2004 Work completion date: 08/2005
OWNERSHIP
Promoter: Owner:
Description of the project:
Urban and design approach:
Spina 3 is the largest urban refurbishment project currently under way in Turin. As part of the radical improvement of this area, some of the buildings will form a new skyline along the river Dora and along the large city park that is being created along the banks. The Torre Blu – Blue Tower – presented in this project is the tallest of these buildings. It is part of the new Michelin Nord complex. It has recently been completed, and it provides social-housing apartments for rent.
The building is owned by a Housing cooperative in which property is not specifically subdivided amongst members. For some years, the Cooperative has been committed to the construction and management of many buildings in the Turin area. The Tower is 21 floors high, above the base slab, and it includes other lower volumes generated by a U-shaped plan.
The three volumes have varying heights, with different numbers and sizes of apartments: East (18-21 floors), South (20 floors) and West (13-15 floors); they share the same structural plan and vertical distribution. In the central part of the standard floors, this structural plan produces a maximum of five apartments per floor. Vertical transport consists of a stair block, two lifts, and a goods hoist. At other floors, the structure may be either lower in height, or it may have empty spaces generating different relationships with adjacent living units.
These empty spaces are strategically important in lessening the volumetric impact of the building as a whole. The Blue Tower’s central position in the square lot is enhanced, from a perspective point of view, by two openings on Corso Mortara and Via Tesso, corresponding to the axis of the perpendicular street, Via Ciamarella. The colours of the architecture are dark blue, light blue, grey and white.
The base slab is partly double (two floors) in height, with extensive glazing on the south and north faces. The cladding is in dark-coloured plaster in the lower part of the volumes. Above the 7th-8th floors, there is a ventilated façade in aluminium panels. The transparent surfaces take on introspective value on the 8th and 9th floors, where communal external spaces accessible from the corridors serving the four apartments improve the quality of life by encouraging interpersonal relations amongst residents.
The communal areas include games and recreation activities for the children living in the group of buildings. The two access corridors for the buildings have natural lighting.
The flat roof has a coping in metal section with horizontal sheets protecting the loggias and technical areas, with noticeably lighter volumes towards the top of the building. Here, on the 23rd floor, space has been allocated for the head offices of the A. Monaco Foundation, which founded the Cooperative. It is a not-for-profit organization committed to the development of social enterprises linked to the world of cooperative work, dedicating particular attention to the theme of social housing.
Lastly, a large room has been created on the ground floor, in addition to the entrance area and the building caretaker’s office, complete with service facilities, for an interesting social inclusion operation run by a social Cooperative, for elderly people living in the complex. All the flat roofing terraces are accessible from the apartments, offering fine views towards the city and the Alps. At a height of 80 metres.
