A functional mix of buildings that creates a new public space

An important project for L22 Living. Lombardini22’s business unit won a competition organised by Ferretticasa, a real-estate company based in Dalmine, to design a collection of residential buildings in Via Camozzi in Bergamo in the area where Italcementi used to be located: there will be approximately 160 apartments, shared landscaped spaces, pedestrian areas and shops. Works will begin in 2022. The idea behind the project comes from how a plot of land located in a densely inhabited area of Lower Bergamo is interpreted in relation to the city. Its closeness to the old town makes it a truly prestigious part of the city with the project fitting seamlessly into the existing urban fabric. The project, focused on sustainability, offers a functional mix of buildings that adapt to their setting and open-connection spaces, whose scale and purpose is defined in relation to the urban context with which they interact. The old buildings will be knocked down to leave room for a new residential complex to be built in two stages, whose ground floor level will serve retail purposes with an overall SLP of approximately 17,800 m². The complex, composed of four separate structures, is constructed around a private landscaped courtyard serving the complex and incorporates two underground levels of parking. The residential facility is designed to be one single complex sharing the same porter’s lodge. Access to the porter’s lodge is along Via Camozzi. It opens onto a landscaped internal courtyard and distributes flows towards the stairways serving the individual blocks. The construction facing along Via Camozzi is set back to create a new public square. The square provides a new pedestrian area in a zone characterised by high-speed traffic and also creates a new building front set at a respectful distance from Madonna della Neve Sanctuary. New retail units on the ground floor define the front facing the square. The project stands out due to the heterogeneity of the façades featuring a variety of various materials, openings and loggias. The external façades of the structures along Via Camozzi and Via Madonna della Neve are constructed out of units adapting to the speed of urban life and mimicking the vertical fragmentation of the existing structures. The internal façades open onto a courtyard drawing on one single architectural idiom featuring a system of curtain loggias and glass walls. The ground floor is designed like a basement and designed in a different architectural language from the structures above it. The stringcourses create continuity across a flexible façade opening towards the outside. Lastly, the internal towers emphasise and reinforce the transition space between the new park landscape and built landscape. The façades stand out from the setting through their own mainly mono-metric language emphasising the complex’s function as a transition space. The façades feature large apertures extending beyond the base unit to reflect the park and draw it inside the domestic space.