​Restoration ​o​f Riva San Vitale Furnaces

Written By Omar Dahabra

Location: ​Ticino, Switzerland
Year: 2025
Architects: enrico sassi architetto sagl
Photography by: Marcelo Villada Ortiz

The project involves the reuse and restoration of existing historic buildings (old kilns + former drying room) and the construction of a new building (kiln house). The new kiln area will be used to produce and fire artistic ceramics. The former drying room, which has been converted into a workshop, will be used to manufacture ceramics that will be fired in the two gas kilns housed in the kiln house. One of the two kilns can be used to fire large pieces.

The renovation of the historic former drying room building involves the construction of a new metal structure inside the existing building to consolidate the old walls, connect the existing floors and support the new metal roof structure, which allows the original, extremely characteristic trusses to be removed and preserved.

The new metal structure consists of uprights (half IPE240 profiles), lintels (HEB120) for the floors and HEB140 profiles to form the trusses of the new roof.

The building has been enclosed with large double-glazed windows installed directly on the supporting structure, This is a very special project. The result enhances the historic building thanks to the slender uprights and the ‘natural oxidised’ (rusty) finish of all the profiles. The entire metal construction (supporting structure, roofing, windows/sills) was made “by hand”, measuring everything on site and producing each individual component to fit the irregularities of the historic building. Text description by the architects.

Source: www.enricosassi.ch 

Omar Dahabra
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