“Ex Boero” Social Housing

The abandoned site of the Boero paint factory in Genoa – now transferred elsewhere – marked the beginning of the revitalization of the city’s Molassana neighborhood. The new housing complex where the plant once stood has started an architectural and urban turnaround that will also include a shopping area grouping the retail outlets scattered around this outlying district. The initial plan was to build a private residential complex. This was later radically changed to a subsidized social housing scheme catering for families excluded from the private housing market. This project is committed to ensuring quality, rationally distributed, modern, well-equipped homes with adequate outdoor public spaces.

Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra’s adjustments to the former project to meet the new brief are fully in line with this commitment to quality. The result is a new social housing program that guarantees architectural and technological quality as well as energy efficient constructions. The complex is made up of two apartment towers of 12 stories above ground and two aligned blocks of five stories above ground set in large open grounds whose planted areas and through-paths are accessible to the general public. The towers have 53 dwelling units each: five apartments per floor and a top story with three attic units; the five-story blocks have 32 apartments each serviced by two staircase and elevator cores. In total, some 170 units, of which 143 subsidized housing. An essential feature of the whole project is the deliberate lack of hierarchical distinction between the private and social housing components. All the buildings have two below-grade parking levels so that each unit is allocated one vehicle space. The large public space in which the complex stands is accessible to the rest of the neighborhood. Porticoed ground-floor areas and pedestrian pathways lead to a wide array of social, service and cultural functions, making it a...

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