Secco sistemi

The “sculptured skin” of the new housing complex reveals the meaning of its name, Inside-Out. It is an invaluable three-dimensional envelope with sun breaker-shelves along the façades interspersed with windows that can be opened completely, solid inserts and protruding volumes. Allowing one to sense what is happening in the interior – in other words, the structure of the building and the apartments – the system of the perimetric façades emphasises the borders with the domestic areas, continuing to above the roofing to include the open, protected space of the roof garden with swimming pool. The elegant architectural design has opted for doors and windows with the SA 20 system in painted galvanised steel,... More

Designed by Pio Piacentini and inaugurated in 1883, over the years the palace has been restructured several times. The original use of the monumental sculptured building for exhibitions was meant to celebrate, together with the capital city Rome, the nation’s modernity, exhibiting bulky objects such as industrial machinery. This partially explains the massive three-dimensional decorations, the nine-metre high columns in yellow scagliola, and the brightly painted walls. For its current use as a contemporary art museum, however, the refurbishment project enhanced the size and sequence of the rooms, whilst neutralising the bulky decorations. Its redevelopment hinges on the use of five-metre high white panels detached from the wall, suita... More

In the Morumbi district in San Paolo, surrounded by villas with swimming pool and luxury apartment blocks, the small residential building of Rua Harmonia seems to portray the strong generative contrasts of energy that characterise the modernity of the South American megalopolis. The irregular geometry of the building along the street unites the two adjacent structures by aligning itself towards their different heights, while the corten steel facing covers the façades like a shield. The abstract connection between life on the street and in the home is achieved through the two large square openings that are high at the front and the back, with just one single, fixed window, together with the terrace on the third floor. Essential elemen... More

Constructed in several phases from 1884 to 1895, ever since Molino Stucky has dominated the Giudecca Canal with its massive volume. An outstanding testimony of industrial archaeology, for over seventy years this neo-Gothic building was at the avant-garde as a steam-driven mill. In the nineteen fifties it began its great decline, until it was totally restructured and transformed into a five-star hotel that opened in 2007. Not only the restoration of the brick walls, but also the replacement of the doors and windows was the object of intensive study regarding the transformation of the building to its new use, with the high quality performance requirements this entailed. The 1950 original doors and windows in slim iron-window, without sealin... More

The home of a young couple of art collectors situated at the top of the Collina d’oro in Lugano, the building comprises three, parallel volumes that are on slightly different split-levels, so that it is possible to enjoy the enchanting landscape of the lake, mountains and flourishing garden surrounding it. Solidity and transparency: these are the themes that the architect developed in the project. It is marked by the continuity and permeability of the spaces between the interior and exterior through the completely glazed walls and, at the same time, by the reassuring sense of protection coming from the clearly marked modular pattern of the structural frame. The smooth, calm and silent surface of the lake becomes part of the house th... More

The warehouse situated along the Trieste seafront was one of the simple, functional nineteenth-century buildings that were built for the port of the Hapsburg city. The restoration of the low building with just one floor transformed the interior: the walls were restored, faced with stone and continue below street level. The walls of a new room are detached and parallel: a transparent casket that rises above the line of the eaves. This is the evocative theme of the incorporation, of nesting dolls: in addition to the arching of the original architectural complex, one can see the glass walls of the new interior, with the addition of precious burnished brass profiles. With the arrangement of the mirroring, which varies depending on the directi... More

According to the descriptions by Pliny, Suetonius and Tacitus, the characteristics of the Domus Aurea were those of the imperial marine villas but on a much bigger scale, as part of the urban fabric, with majestic works to incorporate the hills and monumental arcaded roads over the terrain with such differences in height. What remains of the palace is a pavilion with 150 rooms on Oppian Hill: very few traces remain of the rich stone and precious metal decorations although the fragile, elegant painted and frescoed decorations on the walls and vaults have survived. After 25 years of experimentation, the authorities have identified the technologies necessary to allow the public access to the painting cycles, whilst continuing their delicate r... More

The recent redevelopment of the entrance of the river Savio to Cesena not only resulted in the reconstruction of the bridge and a change in the road network, but also the restructuring of the building complex that houses the exhibition rooms of a local interior design brand. The elegant design of the street façades has redefined the entire block, endowing the project with its own identity that highlights this commercial use and stands out clearly in the surrounding urban fabric. In actual fact, whilst preserving the nature of the urban surroundings, with their grey stone the main façades take on a plastic value, creating unexpected geometrical patterns with profound cuts and protruding volumes, inclined walls and misalignmen... More

A Roman town situated along Via Cassia between Viterbo and Rome, titular see of the Papal State for almost one thousand years, a rural hamlet, market, and a place of pilgrimage along Via Francigena, Sutri is on a hill, surrounded by lush green valleys and rivers. Dating from the thirteenth century and built close to the cathedral, the bishop’s palace bears the traces of countless reconstructions and transformation but has still preserved the character of mediaeval architecture in central Italy, with the colours of tufaceous stone and the majestic volumes on the slope. Its philological restoration and new use as a museum resulted in the reinforcement of the structures and modernisation of the various systems, the additions of stairs,... More

An island becomes a 266 rooms hotel. Deep in nature and history, gazing at the Venice Lagoon-scape. Water, slowness and silence. Ten minutes by boat from San Marco. More

This house is located in a clearing among the trees, at an altitude of 700 meters, near the "Passo del Cavallo", where you can see a place near but at the same time far from the urban area just below.   The relationship with the ground and the landscape are the materials that construct the project: with the ground it operates a principle of rooting towards the slope to the north, where the house seems to bite the mountain, while it "emancipates" to the south, with an overhang that projects it towards the valley.   Facing north, in fact, an open courtyard in the direction of the mountains allows you to admire the profile of the spires of the Dolomites, which at an altitude of 1200 meters continues the green inclined plane virtu... More

A PROJECT DEVELOPED ON A LISTED SITE The land chosen for the Russian Orthodox Spiritual & Cultural Centre project in Paris was originally occupied by the former headquarters of Meteo France. It is close to a number of very popular Parisian tourist attractions and it is adjacent to the banks of the River Seine. The development adjoins the Palais de l’Alma and is not far from the Eiffel Tower, the Quai Branly museum, the Invalides Esplanade on the left bank, and the Grand Palais and the Museum of Modern Art on the right bank. A PROJECT THAT RESPECTS THE NEIGHBOURHOOD AND THE ENVIRONMENT The project is closely incorporated into the existing urban fabric, and particular care has been taken to landscaping. The height of the four building... More