The project idea is meant to attribute a unitary character to the pre-existing system of public spaces, due to different types of architecture that have different functions and come from different periods.

First of all we decided to create a fluid space, even keeping the existing functions, such as driving lanes, pedestrian areas and car parks.
Paving is homogeneous, free from difference in height in order to allow people to walk freely and orientate themselves. The square is easily accessible both to pedestrians and to bicycle, roller blade, wheelchair and pushchair users.

We decided to create a continuous element between the square and the churchyard. Space is free from architectural features that deny access to the handicapped; difference in heigh has been overcome thanks to a 6% inclined plane which becomes itself part of the churchyard.

The main feature of the project is the creation of a winding overhead ribbon of greenery provided by a mixture of tree species lining the footpaths, which are amply supplied with seating. Being cosy and protective, the ribbon of greenery creates curves where the footpath and the rest areas are located. An other important element of the project is a line of water. Water symbolically arises from the churchyard and reaches the lower levels by going through a set of gardens that solve the difference in height between via della Madonnina and the churchyard by means of some pools and vertical water jets. Water system develops alongside garden system.

The main aim is to stimulate all senses in order to encourage users to walk freely throughout the public space.

The intent is to give the area a marked identity, by defining different functional areas inside it. Its total accessibility and usability allows the inhabitants to discover small parts of the garden and to run into a pleasant environment where to walk, stop and entertain, according to the different wishes and age of users.
The church, which is the core of the area, gains in dignity and becomes the focus of the whole space.

We decided to design flower beds in order to divide space into different functional areas connected to each other by a hierarchy of routes.

The formal design recalls Italian gardens. The organic design of the garden represents a crack in the soil under the effect of strength lines and, in the same way as it would happen in a maze, it creates routes in the ground. These “cracks” create penetration axes that bring voids to life thanks to different attractions.

Architecture in this project aims at creating overlapped elements: paving, greenery, seating, elements of urban design, small pieces of architecture.

The widely re-vegetated part keeps the existing level whereas the paved surface goes gradually 60 cm down from the inner to the external part of the area. You can feel a strong sensory relationship with the vegetation and the ground by entering the garden. Users’ senses are involved and stimulated by the environmental diversity of a system that mixes together undergrowth vegetation and existing trees. The aim is to build a sequence of various spaces which will be rich in vitality during different hours of the day and throughout the changing seasonal weather conditions.

The concept that lays behind the building is compared to a system that has been thought as part of a complex network where process of life gives the best answers to all global needs, both environmental and spatial. The building consists of three elements:

• a dense core made of local stone and designed for indoor space and vertical connection
• a shell made of glass that lodges open space offices and shops
• a wrapping skin that gives the volume an organic shape and ,in the same way as an organ behaves, is able to breath naturally, gather rainwater and filter air.

This piece of architecture reacts to all external and internal information.

The main structure is made of recycled concrete. It is covered with a paving of local stone.

The internal partition walls are made of very thick and solid plexiglass elements which contain some aquariums. They all have the function of bearing walls. The external grid is made of carbon fibre, bearing elements. Floor is a ribbed-slab. Every two floors, between the big windows and the external grid, we find a full height thematic garden.

The works for the reconstruction of the apartment are motivated by the privileged position of the property, whose windows open onto Lorenzo Bernini’s Quattro Fiumi fountain in Piazza Navona. The reconstruction project aims at the top of simplicity and clearness of the interiors: the value of the ceilings is enhanced thanks to the Roman vaults that have been discovered above the pre-existing false ceiling; whereas the large representative spaces that open onto the square are maintained.

The newly remodelled bathroom and kitchen facilities are located in the back. We completely overhauled the apartment’s electrical and plumbing systems, which are now compliant with national standing regulations.

Finally we worked on plasters and painting reconstruction, on the restoration of the vaults and of the wooden ceiling, internal and external door and window frames.

The “Acquario Romano” is one of the most important buildings in the Esquilino quarter, together with the “Palazzo Brancaccio”, the “Istituto Poligrafo” and the “Zecca di Stato”, the Ambra Jovinelli theatre and the head office of the “Casse Postali di Risparmio”. The building, designed in 1884 by the architect Ettore Bernich, consists of a main body with an elliptical base. The triumphal arch, with its big niche reachable by going up through two wide flights of stairs, is the main entrance of the building. The interiors are characterized by a large elliptical hall with three orders performed in vertical direction, surmounted by a large circular skylight.

The building, designed to be and aquarium, after only three years became a place for entertainment events. From then onwards the building has had different uses, such as public baths facility in 1895, site for counting papers during the 4thcensus in 1900, site for pisciculture, hall for performances, storage site by the City Government in 1930, in the end warehouse for the scenery from the Opera House until 1984, when the Municipality of Rome started the restoration works.

Since 2003 the Municipality and Province of Rome have granted use of the building as the headquarters of the “Casa dell’Architettura”. The project aims at refurbishing the exhibition area and all facilities, adjusting all the systems, demolishing architectural features that deny access to the handicapped and bringing the fire safety system up to standard. As this piece architecture lodges exhibitions and very attractive public events, we had to provided an historical type of building with all the criteria of accessibility and facilities of contemporary buildings.

The building structure shows clear movements of the foundations, due to some old leaks in the water drainage system. The bearing walls need reinforcing and their original dimensions need restoration.

The crystallized rising dampness, the ineffective binder inside the walls and the unsuitable scaffolding system used to shore up the walls, are the main reasons for the deterioration of the pictorial elements and the marble cladding.

Reinforcement works will be done by inserting some collar-beams inside the bearing walls, by putting reinforcing straps on the walls below the roof and by injecting colloidal lime by gravity.

Also pictorial and decorative elements are going to be pre-reinforced and subsequently restored.

The works are concerned with the restoration of the exterior façades of the building that hosts the Spanish Consulate in Rome. The building apparently was restored in the thirties on the base of the original structure, whose tracks have been lost and that seemed to belong to Ferdinando Fuga. The restoration works started with an archival, historical research about the building to go on with the structural integrity analysis of all the architectural elements.

This allowed us to draw up a restoration project that defined all the detailed interventions that had to be made, and to obtain, in the end, the authorization by the “Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali”. Following the stratigraphic analysis of the wall surface, we carried on with the renovation of all exterior plasters, to remove then all the pictorial and plaster layers, repair the cracks in the walls and recover the damaged architectural elements. We carried out an accurate inspection of the water drainage system.

We completed the work by going through the restoration of all decorative elements, such as window frames, shields, portals and cornices.

The complete rehabilitation project of the building, which is about to be finished, needed an archival research to understand the historical building stratigraphy. The main walls seem to have been originally built at the time of the Middle Ages, while the building has reached the current configuration in the 1600.

We do not exclude Antonio da Sangallo’s intervention. To proceed to the restoration, we first had to reinforce all the structures by creating new foundations, by using reinforcing straps for the vaults and the vertical walls, by reconstructing the roof and reinforcing the slabs.

The refurbishment of the apartments is just reaching its conclusion in these days; the project tries to recover the sense of space and materials typical of Stately Roman palaces by using Roman “cotto” for flooring, chestnut-wood for ceilings and “peperino” stone for window and door frames.

The small fountain’s roaring now resounds throughout the small patio garden, refreshing the entrance paved with bricks laid edge on and creating light suggestions in the evening hours.

Headquarters of the Spanish Embassy in Vatican City. The restoration works proceed with the renewal of the façades of the internal courtyard.

Significant elements, such as the large glass windows that run alongside Borromini’s staircase, the fountain and the restoration of some fresco painted, faux windows, make the work really complex, that needs special care.

Rehabilitation of all systems, whose lines have overlapped and created superfetations and obstacles to the project development, was also necessary.