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The building, 100 meters from the coast in Ancona, features large, light transparencies
In Via Trieste, Ancona, just a hundred meters from the sea, the Domus Passetto apartment building stands out for the way it integrates into the surrounding landscape. Designed by Smart Building Design, it’s an excellent example of harmonizing living spaces and the environment, largely through the dematerialization of the northern façade, which gives the entire structure an appearance of transparency.
Domus Passetto grew out of the demolition and reconstruction of an existing building, but with contemporary remodeling and extension.
The building has seven residential units of different sizes on four aboveground floors and car parking at basement level. The first, second, and third floors have two apartments each, as well as substantial outdoor spaces. A penthouse on the top floor includes a large terrace and swimming pool.
The architectural volume has different configurations on each of its four elevations, each creating an interplay between full and empty spaces and reflecting the urban context.
On the northern side, the building opens to the outdoors with panoramic windows and cantilevered terraces, inviting residents to take in views of the sea, Piazza IV Novembre, and a war memorial designed during the fascist era by Ancona architect Guido Cirilli. This fully glazed façade creates a direct connection between the apartment living areas and the evocative coastal landscape
The southern façade is quite different, with small windows combined with material-driven limestone cladding. This façade has a second balcony off the bedrooms, with a depth of 1.50 m and fitted with aluminum sunshade panels.
On the building’s eastern and western faces, the windows are again small to provide greater privacy for the apartments and reduce interactions with surrounding buildings.
The design of the façades plays a key role in the building’s passive environmental sustainability strategies. Given the extensive glazed surfaces of the northern façade, solid walls, solar screening, and small windows to the south contribute to reducing energy needs. The building, which has the latest home automation and smart living systems, can be classified as nZEB (nearly Zero Energy Building).
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Location: Ancona, Italy
Completion: 2023
Client: Domus Officina
Architect: Costantino Carluccio | Smart Building Design
Systems Engineering: Agostino Ianiri
Structural Consultant: Pierluigi Bonfitto
Main Contractor: GI Costruzioni and Earth System
Windows and doors: Schüco
Bianco Siberia stone cladding: Margraf
Interior doors and furniture: Garofoli
Airconditioning: Daikin
Building entrance wainscoting: Itlas
Photography by Francesco Marini, courtesy of Smart Building Design
