TWO RESIDENTIAL HOUSES IN SAN ZENO NAVIGLIO
LOCATION San Zeno Naviglio, Brescia, Italy
YEAR 2003 – 2006
THEME Architecture, Dwelling spaces, Residential houses
STATUS Built
DESIGNERS Tomaso Monestiroli, Ilario Boniello, Massimo Ferrari, Martina Landsberger
coordinamento generale Luciano Lussignoli
In 1997 architect Luciano Lussignoli drafted the new San Zeno Naviglio Master Plan. The plan is approved in 1999, and in the same year the public administration starts drafting the first Detailed Plan. The objective is to define a settlement structure with its own identity, capable of reorganizing, not only from a functional point of view, the urban fabric. Fundamental element of the project is the construction of a long tree-lined “linear square” overlooked by mixed-use buildings. The project aims to construct the elevations of this new public space from the use of an element characteristic of many Lombard squares: the arcade.
In this case, the arcade/loggia becomes the representative element of the construction of this part of the city. An architectural element entrusted with the task of restoring recognizability to the place. Already in the Detailed Plan, the intervention consists of two linear bodies of buildings placed one in front of the other, parallel to the longitudinal development of the square, perpendicular to which are arranged three additional volumes to delimit, at the back, two courtyards. The desire to compare with some building types found in the Brescian countryside, particularly farmsteads, determined the character of the portico that gives unity to the project and value to the central place. The portico is built from rectan- gular pillars whose width is double the depth. The porch structure, on the upper floors, builds the succession of loggias pertaining to the residence. The choice was made to plaster the structural elements of the loggia, the wall partitions and the horizontal slabs, and to paint them white; red, similar to brick, is the wall that marks the boundary between interior and exterior.
Photo by Marco Introini
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L. Cardani (edit by) Studio Monestiroli Opere e progetti di Architettura Electa Milan 2021