2012-2013

GFA 6000 m2, 4,8 millions Euro, 8 storeys
Design: Mattia Malavenda in collaboration with Mario Vay Studio di Architettura
Client: Cavalli-Gilardino Immobiliare

atOptions = { 'key' : '8d2bd26f68101fa5620191db528169fb', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 250, 'width' : 300, 'params' : {} }; document.write(''); The Lungodora 4-star hotel with its 70 rooms/suites and apartments, is located at the edge of the Regio Parco neighborhood in front of the Dora river and together with the adjacent lot, are indicated by the city urban plan in force as areas to be redeveloped for mixed-use.

The existing situation on the project site is constituted by low buildings with function of workshop and garages, all to be demolished,  while in the adjacent lot an 8 storeys residential building and an ex warehouse building with a distinctive gable roof are going to be preserved and renovated into a theatre.

The project intent, at urban level, is to integrate a the new hotel building with the two, existing in the adjacent lot, in a coherent and armonic composition, unifying the two sites, by dedicating almost completely the ground floor to the public realm,  and sewing the urban fabric, with the new apartments buildings that allineate the edge of the neighborhood urban block and form like a sort neutral backgroud for the three main building (the hotel, the condominium and the theatre) kept in a predominant position, to highlight the architectural composition.

The main idea behind the architectural concept of the hotel come from its context and the observation of the site, especially fron the other side of the Dora river where the view is more comprehensive. The front of the condominium can be in fact virtualized in the shape of a vertical rectangle while the ex warehouse can be virtualized in the shape of a triangle.

The architectural composition is created by adding a third geometry to the compostion, which is the square, or cube. 

The cube dialogues with the existing building, the rectangular and triangular boxes, creating a formal composition that the human mind perceive and recognize, consciously or unconsciously.

In the italian urban culture, this dialoque intensify the evocative perception of public place or piazza, usually composed by the church (triangular), the bell tower (rectangular vert.) and the palazzo (cube or rectangular horiz.).

A longitudinal piazza is designed parallel to the Dora river and Lungodora street and it is separated and "filtered" from the street by a row of detached shops covered by a larger green roof one floor high.
  
The cube is rised one same level of the green roof to be visible with its perfect proportions of 22x22x22 m.

The external cladding of the cube is a perforated and bent metal sheet or mesh at a distance of 40 cm from the gray concrete wall, giving to the building an effect of dematerialization, in contrast with the mass of the cube, like an immaterial mass.

This antithetical concept of a massive object (the cube) that is made by an inpalpible material (the mesh) gives to the architecture the effect of floating, like in the Amsterdam Pavilion designed by Steve Holl from which the Lungodora hotel facade double skin take inspiration.

The double skin facade system is complexifyied by the introduction of the operable perforated mesh openings in correspondance of the windows.

This daylighting control devices allow the users to choose on their own preference regarding the modulation of exterior views and quantity of natural light and in the same time, from the outside, it creates always different composition of the facade that seems like the building has an its own life.