The project offers noticeable different ways of investigating the structure: urban, architectural and typological. The issue of how to balance the coexistence of residential, commercial and public space, has been faced in this project through the different paths that combine various levels of viability: public, semi-public, private. These paths determine both public and private space, with an overlap and a gradual transition in horizontal and vertical direction, in order to generate a dynamic sense of urbanity in the site area.

From the analysis of the existing urban fabric no significant alignments emerge in the settlement, the neighboring buildings have various volumetric consistency and emerge only two dominant and opposite elements: the largest green space in the Villa Comunale, and the dense tissue of the city, irregular and chaotic. It follows the idea of the need for a design approach of a new building demonstrating strong self-identity and capable of assuming the role of an urban magnet.

Two big blocks with irregular shape open onto a central square. The facades are changeable, they are all different by means of wooden slat frames with always variable cuts and openings. The floor plan of “I Portici” is the result of a comprehensive design that pushes beyond the borders of the lot. A striking testimony to this are the facades, whose tatters spread throughout the public space.