Intimacy...

Picture Courtesy - Carlo Oriente

Location - Bergamo, Italy

The photo captures the intimacy of the project designed by Italian architecture firm Archea Associati and ended in 2007. It consists of the renovation of a building from the late Nineteenth century in the old center of the small town Nembro, in the province of Bergamo. The original C-shaped building is expanded with the addition of a new transparent block on the open side, to create an internal open court transforming the building into a “palazzo”.

The new structure is a simple three storey glazed volume, barely detached from the existing one, and is protected by sunscreens formed of red enameled terracotta blocks supported by a system of steel profiles and cables which screen and filter the sunlight. The free rotated blocks reflect the light in various directions and they change the shades of red depending on the sun’s rays. Symbolically they recall the variety of books contained in the library and this aesthetic choice defines clearly the character and the significance of the entire building.