A residential project conceived as an urban regeneration effort. Giovanni Vaccarini has recently completed Riviera 107, an elegant building on the seafront of the city of Pescara that he describes as a piece of the widespread conurbation of the Adriatic coast, perfectly inserted in the urban fabric, in order to reinterpret the typology of the palazzina (apartment building).
The project is located in a portion of the city where some surviving Art Nouveau or neoclassical villas are flanked by imposing buildings, often lacking in quality. Some villas, through the years, were quickly replaced by the rampant palazzina (apartment building) type.
Riviera 107 project
Riviera 107 reinterprets this typology, arranging distribution in the building according to functional bands. The front band of the apartment, the one most open to the public domain, is thus opposite to the service band, which includes the vertical distribution, bathrooms, kitchens, laundries, and furtherback the more private quarters with bedrooms and studios.
Following this logic, the building further develops its dialogue with the surrounding environment. The front of the building is set back from the street edge, and thus defines a semi-public space of mediation between the public and the private spaces. The hallway becomes the collective place par excellence, flanked by a communal space for meetings, parties all those common activities that may be necessary in a condominium. More than anything else, this distribution layout allowed an original transformation of the seafront overlook. Theeast-facing facade, in fact, is conceived as a real open section of the building, along which the floors of the building cantilever. The compact volume is thus dissolved in away and the floor plates “slip” outwards.
The shifting of the planes and the cantilevers that jut out towards the sea define a portion of open-air dwelling, a sort of “trabocco urbano”, explains Giovanni Vaccarini, referring to the traditional trabocchi- wooden structures for fishing that characterize the local coastline. This choice allows the interiors to attain a direct and unconditional relationship with the sea view.
An intense relationship with the city and the landscape, with light and outdoor life, is at the heart of the project. The main rooms of the apartments enjoy direct views and all have outdoor terraces, designed as real open-air rooms, an integral part of domestic life. The soffit of the cantilevered balconies is made of a perforated brass cladding. Seen from below, as one walks along the promenade, the series of reflective overhangs gives rise to a sort of unprecedented fifth elevation of the building that helps to define the urban scene.
Sustainability
Riviera 107, designed by Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti and engineered by Proger Spa, responds to principles of bio-architecture and eco-compatibility. The facades facing south and north, which are more exposed to the action of summer sunshine and the action of cold winter winds, have small openings. The east elevation is fully glazed and protected from direct sunlight by overhangs measuring between 2,5 and 3,5 meters. Thewest side has full-height apertures and is protected by an overhang of 1,5meters, so that interior spaces can take advantage of the weak afternoon sunlight. A zero Co2 emission energy station is powered by a high efficiency heat pump system. FSC-certified timbers as well as materials and finishes that follow the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) methodology were used to construct Riviera 107; also, wherever possible, the design team employed recyclable, renewable and materials sourced within the region. A plan for the management and collection of recyclable materials has been implemented. The terraces and roof garden are planted using local species that require little water so as to minimize the bio-economic impact. The building is designed and built to achieve an A+ Energy Class rating.
