Studio d’architettura Martino Pedrozzi
Arch. dipl. epfl–fas/sia/otia
Via Motta 2
CH–6850 Mendrisio
Switzerland
t +4191NoSkype 942 13 24
f +4191NoSkype 942 13 25
info@pedrozzi.com

Photos: Pino Brioschi
Design: Gysin-Vanetti

An elevated roundabout keeps the junction within motorway perimeters and becomes the key element of the new access to the city.

New functions like sleeping, cooking, eating and resting are introduced into a mountain cowshed fallen into disuse. These functions, often considered partially incompatible in the same space, coexist around a fitted piece of furniture.

The stones of a farmstead in disrepair are placed within the remains of the walls.

A farmstead with dry stone walling has its eaves removed and has the woodwork normally visible between the sides walls and the roof covered. The resulting massive character contrasts sharply with the original tectonic design

A building consisting of parts built at different times set in a rural complex with a courtyard, takes on a harmonious contemporary character. The reconstruction process begins with the demolition of damaged parts like the wooden floors and woodwork. New floors are placed between existing load-bearing walls at different levels so as to permit direct horizontal and vertical movement, from one room to another, through apertures in the walls. The division into three similar floors in the original building is substituted by a set of independent rooms each placed at a specific level.

The vertical structure composed by eight perimeter pillars and two central cores containing elevator and stairs is repeated without variations on all four floors. The access floor remains empty and row. On each of the remaining three floors the apartments are crossed by a diagonal space that emphasizes their major dimension and guarantees the access to all rooms.

A repetitive and close vertical structure, based on two inferior lateral bays and a main central one, allows reduced thicknesses for pillars (20x20 cm) and slabs (16 cm). The roof structure repeats the intermediate slab structure, but it is bent along its central axis.

On the top floor of a traditional house in the historic centre a cross shaped piece of furniture structures in four equivalent sectors the unitary space defined by the perimeter walls.

The one floor house leans on a slope and gets horizontality through two hollow pillars where secondary functions are placed.

Summer school of the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio on social housing design in fast growing cities of poor and emerging countries.
www.wish.usi.ch
With the involvement of:
Miquel Adrià
Leonardo Benevolo
Mario Botta
Marianne Burkhalter
Sebastiano Brandolini, Angelo Bucci and Alvaro Puntoni
Peppo Brivio and Jacques Gubler
Marco Cameroni
Balkrishna Doshi and Snehal Shah
Angelo Mangiarotti
Ernesto Morosin
Ara Nazinyan
Alfredo Pini
Alberto Ponis
Lone Poulsen
Livio Vacchini
Ding Wowo