Continue Scampia

The project recognizes the value of the existing and carries out an experiment of reuse and transformation. It investigates a sustainable alternative to the demolition of the Vele and the reconstruction of homes using a smaller budget and in a better way. Clear priorities changed problematic conditions into potentials maximizing comfort and space.

The project attempts to bring - with a limited budget, minimal actions and the largest possible impact - the Vele buildings to conditions of maximum luxury, comfort and satisfaction as a positive alternative to their demolition and the reconstruction of homes. The critical understanding of the buildings and their dynamics of growth and development, from the original design to the present conditions, is the point of departure. The project is determined by a series of strategic interventions, prompted by the main concerns for the buildings and their inhabitants. Negative elements and problematic conditions are used as potentials. The necessary removal of asbestos in the walkways is an opportunity to demolish them and the related stairs. The replaced circulation allows for the apartments to be accessible to both old and disabled people as well as for the space between the two bodies of units to take on more daylight, transparency and possibilities of visual relationship. The need for a safer and clearer vertical circulation determines the insertion of a series of cores, also containing common spaces, which generate a sequence of courts and a subdivision into autonomous building blocks. This allows for the transformation of the mega building into more communities that may have relations. Adding extensions provides for the individual apartments to expand and get more flexible organisations of rooms. The constrain of the 3,60 m dimension of the structural module, heavily compromising the apartments layout, is overcome by dislocating the circulation in the exterior facade extensions, avoiding dark corridors and taking maximum advantage of the space. The construction of a series of small volumes on the short fronts of the building allows for supporting new uses on the too large and underused roof terraces. The introduction of a series of public crossings at the ground floor generates a new permeability in the building, supporting new public functions and community services as well as a continuity and a sense of civility throughout the estate.