Commercial and residential complex “Ventina”

Date: 2002 – 2005
Client: Ventina srl, Milano
Object:  New residential and shopping centre
Location: Lecco, Italy
Size data:
Surface of the shopping area: 5,500 sq.m.;
Surface of the residential area: 6,737 sq.m.;
Project Stage: Preliminary, definitive, executive project and art direction.

The project foresees the realization of a new commercial and residential complex in Pescarenico, which is a particularly distinctive area from the landscaping viewpoint. The intervention is characterized by a compact commercial volume, placed on levels 0 and + 1, supporting a wide roof garden, on which the residential buildings overlook. The shape of the building and the materials of its covering are conceived so that the building itself can harmoniously become part of the context, allowing transparency towards the high peaks of Mount Resegone and the surrounding mountains at the same time.

The volume of the commercial level is similar to a transparent container that makes the building “immaterial”: an uninterrupted transparent glass façade from ground to top of the shop-windows and a strip of back-coloured glass in seven hues of green in the upper part visually connect it to the roof garden, thus giving an effect of larger spatiality. The volumes of the residential buildings on level +1 have been placed behind the edge of the lower floor, thus allowing a wide view on the mountains. The discontinuous volumetric profile (from three to five floors) allows a better perspective view and guarantees the integration into the context. The building to be used as a multi-floor parking area, made up of a single compact volume, is located next to the described complex.