Rehabilitation of Villa della Amicizia
The intervention concerned the rehabilitation of a small building, largely unused and in an advanced state of decay, forming part of a group of buildings known as Villa della Amicizia, arranged around a courtyard within a historic settlement core. The main building, dating back to the fifteenth century, was renovated between 2000 and 2004 and converted into the municipal library. The building subject to this intervention has a rectangular plan and is located adjacent to the main building, of which it originally served as an ancillary part, although it is not directly connected to it. The ground floor was occupied by the local Alpini association, while the upper floors were unused.
The project provided for the functional recovery of the previously unused upper levels of the building (first floor and second floor/attic), with the aim of enabling a socio-cultural use compatible with the activities already present in the adjacent building, namely the library and the senior citizens’ centre, while seeking to encourage an interrelationship between the spaces of the two parts.
The most delicate issues addressed were the positioning of the new iron staircase connecting the various levels, as the building had no internal stair; the connection with the library in the adjacent building through the construction of a covered passage in painted steel, set along the façade of the main building and characterized by a system of vertically arranged diaphragms regulating light and views; and the functional recovery of the loggias on the south and north sides.
The first loggia, through the removal of a floor slab and a later partition wall, was restored to its original dimensions and enclosed on the previously open side by a large painted steel frame in a burnished finish. The second loggia, located along the façade of the exposed-stone building subject to conservative restoration, had been inaccessible; through the creation of a new opening, this space was connected to the building and now houses the external units of the air-conditioning system, protected on its two open sides by the same painted steel diaphragm system used for the connecting element between the two buildings.
