IPES / 35 Social housing units / Bolzano

The “Prati di Gries” urban plan is characterized by an innovative approach to the theme of residency, proposing a system of buildings developed in height which reduces the land occupation. Thanks to this approach, combined with the choice of an underground road system, generous public spaces are created for the neighborhood, largely landscaped with greenery.
The urban planning approach must find confirmation in the housing concept of the buildings through guiding themes: environmental sustainability, the relationship of the living spaces with the mountain landscape, the relationship between public and domestic space.
One of the challenges that this theme poses is that of giving an adequate expression to the wooden structure.
The development of timber construction in recent years has led to the use of increasingly refined and high-performance construction technologies, which, however, have not been accompanied by an adequate development of architectural language.
Another important aspect is flexibility, to be achieved with construction solutions that allow the number and distribution of housing units to be changed economically.
The heterogeneity of these basis finds a unified response in the construction system chosen for the wooden structure: a frame formed by a regular mesh of pillars connected to a grid of lamellar beams with a deck of solid wood panels in cross-laminated layers (X-Lam).
Conceptually we can imagine the building as a wooden spatial grid, housing the residences, superimposed on the reinforced concrete “table” structure of the first two floors, delegated to social activities and to the relationship with the neighbourhood’s public spaces.

The wooden spatial frame is displayed on the outside, giving the building a strong unity and identifiability. The modules of the structural grid can be clad, with solid or glazed panels, or remain open to accommodate liveable loggias.
The structural grid is superimposed on the changing texture of the domestic spaces, generating a pleasant feeling of variety even within an ordered system.