TWO HOUSING AND SHOPS BUILDINGS
social housing | colors | roof | shops
Dosson (Treviso)
2002-2004
with arch. Elena Olivo; ing. Raffaele fuser - 3 erre ingegneria srl (structures engineering); ing. Stefano Melato (plant engineering)
This housing complex is the result of a process began in 1998 with a Design Competition for a new residential district. The winner team designed first the urban plan of the area and then some housing buildings. The two buildings shown here mark the access to the new district from the city centre. Their plans are shaped as a “Z”, a kind of open block. A street cuts the Z-volume into two buildings, giving shape to their distinctive outlines with acute angle. The configuration of volumes gives also shape to the open space facing it. Thanks to the zig-zag geometry of the plan there are multiple orientations of apartments and several dwelling’s types. Because of the configuration of plan and section, the facades are different each other: the buildings change going around them. The main facades are different: the ones towards the public space are marked by windows and lodges grouped together along horizontal lines; the back sides present large openings at different height. Colors, thickness of coverings and walls, folds of perimetral wall draw the facade layout. Shape and colors lend the building a special identity, while the gently sloping roof and the openings cut into the volume lend the house a sculptural quality. Particurarly important is the top of buildings. The top outline is not horizontal, but it follows the different heights. On the lower side the ledge is shaped as a wing hiddening the rain. Very simple details, particular shape of volume, colors and multiplicity of dwelling types are the tools used to give quality to a building built by means of very common materials and technics and of the low budget of social housing.
Photographers: Francesco Castagna, Colin Dutton, Matteo Sartori