Architects Pedrozzi and Diaz Saravia
Via Noseda 20
CH–6850 Mendrisio
Switzerland
t +4191NoSkype 942 13 24
f +4191NoSkype 942 13 25
info@pedrozzidiazsaravia.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.

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.

The house, located just outside the historic centre where once began the fields, has been absorbed over the years by the urban extension of Mendrisio. However, its autonomy originally characterized by the agricultural context has paradoxically increased with the transition to an urban situation. After the creation of a built front along a recently realized road, the dwelling has found itself protagonist of a well defined space between the historical town edge and the new urban front. The individuality of the house is accentuated by its eclectic architecture. With the renovation it has been cleaned inside and outside of all the secondary elements such as porches and partitions highlighting its volumetric and spatial simplicity. Besides the bath rooms only two interior columns were added in the centre of the floor plan as structural reinforcement. The facade, repainted light gray and dotted with red and white accents, follows the decorative character of the balconies and the bargeboards. (facade graphic consultant: Sidi Vanetti)

Summer school of the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio on social housing design in fast growing cities.
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

The house is structured by four peripheral walls and two horizontal slabs that with the sliding panels and the folding windows create a sequence of courtyards and interior spaces. The position of panels and windows defines or dissolves the limits of the spaces. On the ground floor the panels movement transforms the circulation from external to internal. The peripheral walls are made by recycled bricks of the pre-existing house. Thanks to the flexible outside circulation the house can be converted into a Bed & Breakfast with three rooms in the first floor and a public ground floor.