The Municipality of Bressanone (in the region Trentino Alto Adige, Italy) is gradually changing its skin.
This process has taken place for many years, with important private and public projects selected through international competitions. Those operations are both on small and large scale and involve several actors and different types of partnership. The quality of these projects is the same one that characterizes different aspects of this region, among them the contemporary architecture. A slow transformation is taking place also inside the city of Bressanone; moreover, it is working in a silent way, almost discreet, without revealing itself to whom is walking in the historical city centre.
This metamorphosis has involved one of its “central periphery”: the Ex-Tribunale (Ex-Courthouse) and the Ex-Finanza (Ex-Finance building), two of the most relevant volumes that surround Piazza Duomo.
The will of the architecture project was to give back a character to the inner spaces that was lost because of various alterations made over the years. The restoration project had the objective to clean and subtract all the unnecessary things, trying to transmit to the spaces an atmosphere which feels both timeless and authentic.
The project for the new public library in Bressanone (Italy) started with the refurbishment of the building named Ex-Tribunale as first stage, which is one of the oldest constructions in the city and was the Bishop’s sojourn. It is a relevant edifice, directly facing Piazza Duomo, which went through many changes during the centuries both regarding the architectural aspects and the functional ones.
The project, perceived as meticulous designing and manufacturing process, allowed to recover the traditional materials, to give back (when possible) the original decorations and the spatiality typical of Bressanone. It allowed enhancing some distorted spaces (those whose original nature was impossible to re-establish) as respectful as possible.
This last necessity springs the architectural choice of design some cornices, lighting fixtures and accessories in the most timeless way. These elements are designed as they were part of the antiques, always belonged to the existing building, but without any nostalgia of the past: accessories and devices conceived with a strong vocation of contemporaneity.
