Colonica

Colonica | San Miniato, Italy | 2022
[LDA.iMdA architetti associati]

The restoration of the Colonica situated in front of the young women’s care home for mental health problems “Casa Verde” is part of a larger plan that aims is to renovate and put into system the 3 existing buildings: the “Villino Magnelli” expanded in the sixties, the rural building called colonica and the barn.

The recovery plan provides, the preservation of the two rural buildings, the extension of the “Villino Magnelli” and the provision of an infrastructural system including vehicular / pedestrian access and a car park.

The geomorphological conformation of the site and the fragility of the landscape-environment have guided the project on two design lines:
– to lighten the ridge, where the project is located, reducing the danger of instability of the side of the hill;
– to preserve the characteristics of the site by intervening with an appropriate architectural language;

The lightening of the ridge took place through the removal and the replacement of the ridge land on site, especially in the parking area, and through the creation of underground volumes in the recovered buildings.

The Colonica, houses a centre for daytime activities for boys/girls with small neuro-psychiatric disabilities, completing the Casa Verde activity that offers a residential service for psychiatric disorders with greater severity.

The whole recovery plan was built paying particular attention to the system of “perceived”; in terms of environmental landscape the site is in fact an integral part of the green ring that surrounds the medieval settlement of San Miniato. Following this approach, the main building Casa Verde, being for a large part built as a new volume, was treated with a micro-perforated aluminium facade system that simulates the colour of the surrounding forest; this allows a strong attenuation of the perception of the volume of the building. For the Colonica the attitude was different. The planivolumetric consistency has been maintained and we neutralised the building through the colour; a “freeze” which allows to perceive the historical typology announcing a new use of the building.

With this design we have also treated the superfetation. The project’s micro-perforated loggia reinterprets an historicised outbuilding, which hindered the reading of the historical organism. The chromatic homogeneity in the treatment of the surfaces has been extremely functional to the definition of the whole complex accentuating the hierarchy between the existing buildings.

The neutral colour used in the treatment of the building’s elevations, continues in the inside, ensuring linguistic consistency and creating particularly relaxing spaces for the activity of the boys/girls.

Architecture with its language needs to guide the space of the city, without necessarily shouting. On this balance are based the synergies with the territory and the landscape.

Some of the images shot by medullastudiomedulla include a model’s interaction with the space. This is the story of the appropriation of a new atmosphere, of an architecture and of a rebirth. Text description by the architects.