UNITED WE STAND
The historic villages of Lower Valtellina are made up of simple buildings. Architectures born out of necessity, built with few materials and transformed over time without ever losing their identity. Stone walls, plastered surfaces, irregular openings. Nothing spectacular, only the quiet authenticity of buildings that have endured through generations.
UNITED WE STAND belongs to this family. Located in the historic centre of Regoledo di Cosio Valtellino, the building stood silent and abandoned for many years. Structural, spatial and technical deficiencies had compromised its usability, yet its strong connection to the place remained intact. A weathered, uninhabitable building that never lost its intrinsic character.
It is from these shortcomings that the adaptive reuse and architectural graft take shape.
The intervention does not replace the existing building; it completes it. A new volume stands alongside the historic structure, accommodating the functions it lacked: vertical circulation, structural support and building services. Old and new remain clearly distinguishable while functioning as a single organism.
This distinction is expressed through materiality. The original building preserves its authentic character, while the addition is deliberately presented as a steel structure resting on a concrete plinth and wrapped in horizontal larch timber slats. A light envelope that protects the interior spaces, filters daylight and partially reveals what it contains.
The elevations express two distinct identities. On the north side, the new volume appears more compact and restrained, almost as if protecting the existing building. Towards the south, it opens to the landscape, orienting the main living spaces towards the sun, the Orobie Alps and the Church of San Domenico, making them part of everyday life within the house.
The new roof completes this dialogue. It is neither an autonomous element nor a gesture of contrast, but a measured intervention that reunites the two volumes into a single architectural form, establishing continuity between the existing structure and the contemporary graft.
Old and new remain distinct, yet find their fulfilment in their reciprocal relationship. Neither prevails over the other. Together they create an architecture capable of looking towards the future without abandoning memory.
United they stand. Divided they fall.
