Life Brescia (Italy)

New residential district in the former Draco area

This residential complex is an integral part of an important urban redevelopment intervention. It stands out for its original volumetric solution of the façade, where ceramics beautifully blends with other materials (wood, plaster, fibre cement) through its colour scheme and surface finishes, which highlight and split the morphology and articulation of the blocks. The dynamic ceramic surfaces are made with 3D diamond-shaped elements, specifically manufactured as per the designer’s drawing.

The LIFE project faces the urban regeneration issue. Its aim is to recover an important de-industrialised area in Brescia, focusing on the synergistic relationship between

recent suburbs, historical centre, and surrounding green areas.

The intervention site is at the core of the city’s first industrial expansion, in south-west Brescia, near the old city centre, just outside the green belt that develops across the historic walls, and includes the Castle area.

The project by 5+1AA Alfonso Femia, Gianluca Peluffo was based on the dialogue between the compact fabric of the historic settlement and the fragmented part of the expanding city. On the one hand, they focused on the qualitative and figurative balance between the building’s solids and voids and, on the other, they focused on block layout to ensure permeability across the east-western axis and strengthen the direct connection between the new building with the city centre and its close relationship with the walls’ green system.

Amid these balanced compositional contrasts, the choice and combination of the different covering materials play an essential role. Their colours, texture, and ability to reflect light in different ways, as well as to draw shadows on the intricate volumes of the façades were decisive. In addition to the plaster background, shingles and fibre cement panelling, the texture of the Meranti wood planks, the dynamic ceramic surfaces take centre stage. These surfaces were created using 3D diamond-shaped elements made to measure by Casalgrande Padana as per 5+1AA Alfonso Femia Gianluca Peluffo’s drawing.