06 January 2019

The project is located on a long and very narrow site, on the edge of Parc La Vilette in Paris’s 19th district, within an urban development done by Reichen & Robert architects. On the northeast, new Paris tram route is passing along the site. The site is bordering with tram garage on the southwest, above which is a football field. The first 3 floors of the housing will inevitably share the wall with the tram garage. The parcel has a very particular configuration; 11m in width and extending approximately 200m north-south. This foreshadows the importance of processing the eastern facade overlooking the extension of the street Des Petits Ponts which hosts the tram and both cyclist and pedestrian walkways. The long volume of the building is divided into two parts connected with a narrow bridge. Between two volumes there is a garden. The building has 11 floors: a technical space in the basement, shared programs in the ground floor, and student apartments in the upper nine floors. The layout is very rational and modular. The major objective of the project was to provide students with a healthy environment for studying, learning and meeting. Along the length of the football field is an open corridor and gallery that overlooks the field and creates a view to the city and the Eiffel tower. This gallery is an access to the apartments providing students with a common place. All the studios are the same size and contain the same elements to optimize design and construction: an entrance, bathroom, wardrobe, kitchenette, working space and a bed. Each apartment has a balcony overlooking the street. Narrow length of the plot with 10 floors gives to site a significant presence. Each volume contains two different faces according to the function and program. The elevation towards the street des Petits Ponts contains studio balconies-baskets of different sizes made from HPL timber stripes. They are randomly oriented to diversify the views and rhythm of the façade. Shifted baskets create a dynamic surface while also breaking down the scale and proportion of the building. The elevation towards the football field has an open passage walkway with studio entrances enclosed with a 3D metal mesh. Both volumes are connected on the first floor with a narrow bridge which is also an open common space for students. The building is energy efficient to accommodate the desires of Paris' sustainable development efforts. The Plan Climates goal is that future housing will consume 50KW-h.m.² or less. The objectives of energy performance and the construction timetable were met by focusing on a simple, well insulated and ventilated object that functions at its best year round. Accommodations are cross ventilating and allow abundant day lighting throughout the apartment. External corridors and glass staircases also promote natural lighting in the common circulation, affording energy while also creating comfortable and well lit social spaces. The building is insulated from the outside with an insulation thickness of 20 cm. Thermal bridge breakers are used on corridor floors and balconies to avoid thermal bridges. Ventilation is controlled by double flow mechanical ventilation, providing clean air in every apartment with an optimum temperature throughout the year. The incoming air also reuses heat from the exhaust air. The roof is covered with 300m² of photovoltaic panels to generate electricity. Rainwater is harvested on site in a basin pool used for watering outdoor green spaces. (Fabiana Cambiaso - Università La Sapienza) www.ofis-a.si  Photos: ©Tomaz Gregoric.

Edoardo Croci

10 October 2018

Designed by architects Paolo Brescia and Tommaso Principi from OBR, the new restaurant on the terrace of the Palace of Art, with the "Arts & Foods" Hall curated by Germano Celant, is one of the most important initiatives of the Triennale di Milano for Expo 2015. After restoring the roof terrace over the main hall according to the original plans by Giovanni Muzio, Triennale of Milan shows a new dimension of quality catering, prepared by Michelin-starred chef Stefano Cerveni. All of the Milan Triennale exhibition have defined a synthesis between design and architectural experimentation. At such times the Park was transformed into a theatrical platform of new myths for urban living and Muzio's building became an admirable cultural promotion device. The OBR project, winner of the competition organized by Triennale of Milan in January 2014, interprets the tradition with a lightweight, rigorous and dynamic solution. The restaurant is designed as a transparent greenhouse surrounded by greenery and suspended on the Sempione Park, with a spectacular view of the Castello Sforzesco and the entire skyline of Milan. Going up on the terrace of the Palazzo dell'Arte, you are greeted by an aromatic garden designed by landscape architect Antonio Perazzi, behind which the restaurant Glass Pavilion (33 x 5 metres), set back from the façade portals. “Triennale has always been a reference of social and cultural life of Milan. The restaurant like greenhouse suspended between the Park and the city was born from the idea of enhancing the terrace of Palazzo dell'Arte as a place strong urban sociability, evolving sensitive space that works under dynamic exchanges between inside and outside "-Paolo Brescia and Tommaso Principi explain. The Hall, which is completely open on the perimeter, is characterized by a light stainless steel modular structure which allows easy and fast mounting and dismounting directly in situ, combining industrial technology with craftsmanship. The structure design, engineered by Buro Happold and Milan Engineering and built by Capoferri firm, resumes the geometries of historic spans of Muzio. A large 400 square meter mobile tent floats suspended above the Glass Pavilion. Completely open on one side, it runs the Hall like a greenhouse, thermoregulating with different mode day/night and summer/winter bioclimatic use, and allowing guests to dine repaired by the sun or dining under the stars. As a video installation, the curtain suspended on greenhouse comes alive with images and lights designed by Guido Bianchi, referring to events sponsored by Triennale for Expo and providing guests with a unique experience between haute cuisine and design, suspended between the park and the city. The Pavilion is 33 meters long, 4.7 meters wide, 3 meters high and it has an area of about 150 square meters. The architectural design was developed by Paolo Brescia, Tommaso Principi and Andrea Casetto from OBR, with Maddalena D'alfonso, and it involves the construction of a glass Pavilion above the terrace of the Palazzo dell'Arte of Triennale di Milano, recently restored by the architect Alessandro Pedron.

Edoardo Croci

11 March 2019

The city of Hamburg will become, until September, in the European capital of sustainable architecture, anticipating the trends of smart cities of the future, to find an innovative response to the most urgent problems of the contemporary urban living. The occasion is the International Building Exhibition (IBA), an event with over a century of history, born in 1901, and today more than ever pushed the green innovation of the construction industry. Hundreds are the proposals in a few weeks on the streets of Hamburg with international authorship. Architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers will meet to implement a wide range of architectural solutions related to reality and, above all, can be exported in any other context. Among the protagonists of IBA, we find an award-winning team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), authors of "Soft House". "An architecture suited to respond to the continuous changes of our time," says the architect Sheila Kennedy Professor of MIT and leader of the study team KVA Matx, where energy infrastructure are not ends in themselves but as means of creating innovative buildings where technologies are the protagonists. Posted in Wilhelmsburg Island, Soft House presents: -a dynamic South façade made of a Web of textile strips integrated photovoltaic cells and applied to a horizontal axis solar tracking. Photovoltaic elements are always oriented toward the Sun, picking up the maximum amount of clean energy to power your home. At the same time the fabric of the façade becomes a brise-soleil: natural shielding that protects the Interior from the heat during the summer months, leaving the light penetrate deep into winter; -a light wood frame and wooden furniture components that transform the perimeter structure of classic German Passivehaus, in a flexible and moldable living space, corresponds to the standard Passivehaus. -energy produced from “solar curtains” is transferred directly to the LED lighting system, essential to keep down the level of carbon emissions. The Soft House is a clear demonstration of how the energy technology, can be transformed into a piece of design that contributes to the efficiency of low-energy buildings, besides being completely dismantled and recycled at the end of the life cycle of the building. "We need to achieve maximum creativity and flexibility to see how far we can bring new materials," says Sheila Kennedy. "The most interesting applications for the new materials are those who work at different levels, once this is achieved, we will be able to insert ourselves in the market, revolutionizing the sustainable architecture". (Fabiana Cambiaso – Università La Sapienza) Credits: www.kvarch.net web.mit.edu   Soft House, Kennedy & Violich Architecture   Residential area: 
4/180 mq Finished on March 2013 Materials: Wood, Textile membranes Applications: Structure, Casing, Screens.

Carlo Bardelli

05 April 2019

Those living in temperate bands of our land, especially in Europe but also in Canada and in the United States, knows how difficult it is to deal with the increasingly extreme and sudden changes in temperature. Often, in fact, severe weather events and disturbances cause significant excursions between the low and high temperatures. In these situations, keeping a high level of comfort at home and at work inside buildings may not be easy.

Marco Mignatti

To ensure good living and working conditions, without resorting to massively expensive and polluting air conditioning systems, it is necessary to have a good thermal insulation system with the right envelope thermal inertia. In this way it is possible to enjoy a very good thermal and acoustic insulation, with the resulting benefits. To obtain optimum results in every type of intervention, Isopan – a company specialized in the field of insulated panels for roofing and wall – achieved Isocappotto coating systems. It is not a traditional coat, but a evolved double skin metal panel faced sandwich, covered with different materials to obtain the same aesthetic of the plastered walls. The ISOCAPPOTTO system can be defined as a kind of faux flashing, as it differs from the classical system of traditional walls for the presence of a double skin metal faced sandwich covered with different materials. In this way you can hide the presence of sandwich panel, imitating the aesthetic of classic plastered walls.

ISOCAPPOTTO is a system that can be applied to any type of intervention, from the construction of new buildings or industrial production sectors (Office buildings, factories, warehouses) as well as residential buildings such as houses or condominiums. The system also represents a valuable solution in case of renovations or improvements of existing buildings.

Isocappotto can have two types of insulation: mineral wool or polyurethane. Polyurethane isolation allows a series of advantages such as: high heat resistance, mechanical stability, speed, stability, lightness and flexibility. The benefits of mineral wool insulation can be summarized in: high thermal insulation, good fire behaviour, high sound insulation, flexibility, dimensional stability and mechanical.