Residential building in corso Matteotti, Torino

The project replaces a low commercial building and completes a residential urban block built among XIX and XX century looking onto the Spina Centrale boulevard, in front of new Porta Susa station and Intesa San Paolo skyscraper. The plan respects the historical urban alignment, but the linear solid façade is partially superimposed by a screen made of a series of bow-windows and balconies; they recall elements from the adjacent houses - featuring basic eclectic/ Art Nouveau characters – but enlarge them in order to face the scale of the new “steel and glass” buildings along the boulevard. Keeping in memory metallic craft from the XIX century, the bow-windows screen is not a flat surface but a ribbed one: the vertical steel structure profiled along slightly oblique lines produces a dynamic vibration counterpointing the façade.