Multifamily Housing

GI multi-family housing

The GI multi-family housing is located on a slope in Ischia, a small town to the southeast of Pergine Valsugana. The building consists of three apartments, one on each floor, with the last floor designed as a duplex. Large windows allow for a beautiful view of Lake Caldonazzo and take advantage of the excellent year-round light. The peculiarity of the location and its existing buildings inspired the architects to make a very compact and uniform construction volume. Their aim was to reduce the visual impact of the main front—the one visible from the lake—by using loggias to create continuity between the front and the pitched roofs. The roof doesn’t jut out from the walls and is actually integrated into the volume, which sees the external walls plastered with colors inspired by the local natural soils, whereas the balconies and terraces have a transparent parapet. The niches of the loggias, a reinterpretation of the historic buildings in the country, along with the lateral walls outside the window frames, sliding doors and cantilevered slabs, are dark colored.

The building is classified as A+ (27 kWh/m2 per year). Domestic hot water is supplied by a solar-thermal system. To increase energy saving, in addition to the insulation of external walls, ceilings and controlled mechanical ventilation, there has been a focus on rationalizing the internal distribution, providing the building with large openings achieved by using larch low-E windows with triple glazing. These are located at south, east, and west to make the most of the winter sun. The main entrance is situated on the inferior street, while the secondary ones, pedestrian-only, are at the top and bottom of the site. By accessing the building through external spaces the architects have tried to emphasize the use of green elements, obtaining a residential building immersed in the landscape, capable of fostering relationships between the people who live there.