22 Public Housing apartments & 20 Reduced Rent apartments

Location: viale Indipendenza, Oristano, Sardinia, Italy
Competition: March 2008
Client: A.R.E.A. (Regional Office for Residential Buildings)
Architects: Domenico Piemonte – Samsarelou Katerina (PiSaA)
Tonino Tola , Aron Murgia, Giovanni Murgia
Landscape consultant: Lucia Vecchi
Images: ©PiSaA

An architectural and urban design transformation is necessary in order to improve both, the built environment and the life within it, so as to contribute to the solution of all the social and economic woes such districts have to contend with. The main thrust of transformation is demolition and redevelopment.
Small units will be replaced by larger ones and more expensive owner-occupied and rental units will be
added, thus merging new and old occupants.

The shape of the two new blocks and their position in the site create a unique public space formed by two squares. The first one opens towards the district’s main commercial street integrating its commercial aspect.
The second block is more isolated, it guarantees more privacy and less exposure to the occupants. This difference is evident within the ground floor – commercial spaces in the first section
and areas for common activities in the second section.

Both areas are treated with a same style. The whole ground floor is a surface paved with a Sardinian origin stone and with small islands of plants, such as Sophora japonica, Tamarix gallica, Lavandola angustifolia, Pennisetum alopecuroides etc. – all plant species chosen require little amounts of water.

The proposal consists of two buildings, each one formed of four floors containing totally 42 dwellings of one, two, three, and four-bedroom apartments. Every apartment faces both north and south in order to achieve natural cross-ventilation.

The idea aims at the creation of two fort-inspired buildings, strengthening the sense of protection of the interior. The external wall façade is being excavated in a diverse manner so as to create windows and terraces protected from the fierce Mediterranean sun. To an outside observer the position of these “holes” appear semi-random: an image inspired by the "borgo" façades of medieval Italy.

THE OFFICE

Samarelou Katerina (Greece) and Piemonte Domenico (Italy) finish their studies at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Florence. They established in Barcelona where they founded the architectural office PiSaA.

They realize projects and participate in competitions mostly in Spain, Greece and Italy.

The starting point of any project is the research, the decodification and the decision- making in basis of elements that derive from the context, the scrolling of the history of the place and its need to be regenerated.

The office applies the principles of bioclimatic design and the ecological construction.