SELECTED WORKS | Simone Collinetti

ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO Simone Collinetti selected works 2015 - 2020

INDEX

RETHINKING THE CRYSTAL PALACE Adaptive reuse of an abandoned warehouse

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A NEW BRDIGE FOR NORRKÖPING New bridge proposal

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TANTOLINE Extension of the existing bikeway

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NFS Nordic Film Studio Residence

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SYNCHRONOS KAI DIACHRONIKOS Musealization of the Acropolis of Athens

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SOLAR BOAT MUSEUM New museum at Giza Plateau

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NELLE MANI DI CHI LAVORA Photography exhibition

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MIRABILIS AEGESTA New stage for the Greek Theatre of Segesta

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DIE NEUE BAUAKADEMIE Proposal for the Schinkel’s Bauakademie

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FORI IMPERIALI UNDERGROUND STATION Underground station museum

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IN DIALOGUE WITH GRA(fton)VITY Intensifying blocks

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GERMANASCA 37 Addition to a historic building

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L3 Thermal complex in Hadrian’s Villa

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25_65 Students accomodation

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MAB New museum in an abandoned farmstead

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DUO SPACE Residential building

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LPL New London Public Library

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FROM PAUSE TO STOP Residential complex

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RETHINKING THE CRYSTAL PALACE Adaptive reuse of an abandoned warehouse | Milano (IT) Master Thesis in Architecture | KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2020

The project focuses on what is now know as the Crystal Palace, an abandoned warehouse in the periphery of Milano, once part of the Innocenti factory. The interest for the architectural features, the detailing of the existing, the collaboration between an old piece of architecture and new elements, set the scenario for the new intervention.

The first part of the project deals with the actual state of conservation of the building: the new park, almost like a romantic garden, reveals the secretness of industrial architecture and time, basing its principles upon the key concepts of the Romanticism and the more modern terms introduced by studies on terrain vague.

In order to integrate the project in the surroundigs, a space for exhibition galleries and a botanical laboratory are inserted within the existing structure.

The exhibition spaces are based on a modular composition that allows a complete freedom, but still keeping a feature of order and coherence.

The botanical laboratory takes advantage of the existing structure as an exterior shell, under which four greenhouses host the four macro climate zones (tropical, subtropical, temperate and glacial).

The thin and light layer of ETFE pillows used for the new roof, reduces invasive interventions and at the same time is expression of a sustainable technology.

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A NEW BRDIGE FOR NORRKÖPING New bridge proposal | Norrköping (SE) Master in Architecture | KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2019

The city of Norrköping is crossed by the river Motala and it currently acts as a barrier for pedestrians and cyclists affecting their ability to move between different parts of the city.

As a relief from the linearity of the existing promenades and the heaviness and rigidity of its industrial past, the new promenade is curved and twisting following the contours of the topography on the southern side. The winding path offers various viewpoints of the surrounding landscape and the bridge also widens at two points along its spant.

The chosen structure allows the bridge to be slender, light and sculptural. It meets the ground with minimal intervention on two sculpted concrete columns allowing original paths to be retained.

The underside of the bridge is a strong feature, the sleek horizontal lines of the timber structure add to the lightness of the bridge. The principal structure is a continuous block-glued glulam beam.

The block gluing process offers the possibility to produce curved or twisted elements, as well as stepped cross-sections. This allows thinking and constructing in free forms and highlights a novel use of wood in bridge construction, versus the

more traditional truss which can be seen in other parts of the city. The bridge’s geometry, with the glulam elements gradually angling 30 degrees provides natural rain protection.

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TANTOLINE Extension of the existing bikeway and a garden | Stockholm (SE) Master in Architecture | KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2019

Every big city, behind its greatness and complexity built time over time, hides leftover spaces that deviate in the normal logic of the urban development. When we visit these places we sense their disconnection from the surrounding city. Their lack of productivity and functionality, their disavowal of ‘highest and best use’, allows them to manifest other rhythms and harbour other kinds of life. Negative attributes become positive qualities.

The underside of Årstabroarna, two parallel railway viaducts in Tanto (Stockholm), represents one of those leftover spaces characterised by negative attributes: rainwater gains toxins and pollutants from the passage of trains, it gets collected and flows inside drainage pipes all the way down to the ground and eventually to the sea.

The proposed elevated bikekway assumes a central role in this scenario. It creates a new connection with the urban bike network and the most important thing is its role in terms of vegetation: part of the path is occupied by soil tanks that run for the entire length of the walkway, where the rainwater drainage system, coming from the viaduct, waters a series of plants. These

plants are specifically chosen according to their resistance to pollutants (the more resistant on top, and the ‘weaker’ ones towards the landing of the elevated line). The whole system recycles dirty waters, preventing it to be dismantled in the sea, and it provides a source for a new habitat in this small but circular intervention.

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NFS Nordic Film Studio Residence | Tokyo (JP) Master in Architecture | KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2019

The project was born upon the thin but relevant relationship between architecture and moviemaking, Nordic culture and Japanese tradition. Important Japanese concepts such as Ma and Oku regulate not only arts but can be found in every aspect of human life.

High density, variety and small scale are just some of the key words to describe a district like Koenji in Tokyo. NFS tries to achieve that compromise between the private and the public sphere in architecture, offering functional spaces for a film studio and spaces where to gather or just take a break from the breathlessness of the city.

No defined border in-and-out is the power of socialization and promotion of multicultural interactions among locals and visitors.

No real boundaries, only ma.

Arata Isozaki

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SYNCHRONOS KAI DIACHRONIKOS Musealization of the Acropolis | Athens (GR) Master Thesis in Architecture and Museography for Archaeology | Accademia Adrianea, 2019 Premio Paola Mattioli, First Prize What makes the Acropolis of Athens so fascinating is also due to the many historical transformations that occurred through the centuries. The result is a rich palimpsest that, right because of the plurality of information and archaeological finds, either visible or not, results difficult to be understood.

The goal of the project is to make this palimpsest visible and accessible through a museographical procedure.

The first part of the project is the proposal of a new museum, that acts as a new layer on top of the Old Acropolis Museum, built at the end of the 19th century. The new museum is intended to describe and collect the findings from the excavation of the Perserschutt (the Persian Debris), also by following the traces of the Sanctuary of Pandion, on which a new platform functions as a viewpoint over the city of Athens.

The musealisation of the Parthenon’s cella follows the palimpsest criteria too, showing the transformations of the temple from the early stages. The entrance to the cella is a cul-de-sac path surrounded by a black resin abstract surface.

These choices underline the original meaning of the cella, a holy space where only few priests

were allowed in. New abstract volumes imitate the presence of the former columns, but with no intention of replacing them.

A third layer is added on top of the rocky outcrop.

A new paving that covers the ancient Panathenaic paths is conceived in continuity with the work of the architect Dimitris Pikionis: however, a different geometric composition orders the stones’ placement, following rhythms coming from the ancient Greek tragedy. In order to emphasise the palimpsest even more, the new paving is crossed with brass lines that remark the visual composition of the Acropolis, discovered and studied by Konstantinos Apostolou Doxiadis.

Finally, marble and granite outline the presence of former temples and sanctuaries spread around the Acropolis.

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SOLAR BOAT MUSEUM Proposal for the Solar Boat Museum | Giza Plateau, Cairo (EG) Master in Architecture and Museography for Archaeology | Accademia Adrianea, 2018

This project starts from the request to rethink the Solar Boat Museum next to the Great Pyramid, designed by the Italian architect Franco Minissi.

The proposal is a long and silent wall on the South facade. The side that faces the pyramid is characterised by a repetition of elements, almost like a diaphragm, that follows the rhythm and dimensions of the stones found in the archaeological pit.

On the inside, a promenade architecturale leads the visitors around the Solar Boat, along with all the accessory spaces.

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NELLE MANI DI CHI LAVORA Photography exhibition | Biella (IT) 2018

Nelle mani di chi lavora (literally In the hands of those who work) is a project that started from the bottom up, led by a group of guys from the city of Biella who like to close their eyes for a while, capture the moment and make it immortal.

A bunch of guys deeply in love with their city, with its history, its past, trusting in a future able to give a lot.

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MIRABILIS AEGESTA New scene for the Greek Theatre of Segesta | Trapani (IT) Master in Architecture and Museography for Archaeology | Accademia Adrianea, 2018

Theatres are organised in a specific way: changing rooms, backstage, scene, orchestra, actors and singers on one side, the audience on the theatron on the other. Ages pass and time changes their features, leaving stones on the ground and letting imagination do its job.

Our intervention will not alter what is left, nor will it touch the ruins. It carries the idea of a new use of old theatres, where there are no fixed functions in fixed places.

The natural environment in which this heritage place is settled is now the new scene, the theatron itself is what tourists want to see. A new orchestra that can be both stage or the audience standing area.

Depending on the performance, the theatre can reverse its positioning, facing the valley below or its own ruins.

These are multiple but smart uses of a place that is able to adapt to time without losing its soul.

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DIE NEUE BAUAKADEMIE (Provocative) proposal for the Schinkel’s Bauakademie | Berlin (DE) Master in Architecture and Museography for Archaeology | Accademia Adrianea, 2018

The city of Berlin is constantly working to solve damages caused by the Second World War, and many areas have been reconstructed, some completely, and others only partially.

The Berliner Schloss, whose reconstruction is by the Italian architect Franco Stella, is right in front of one of the schools that wrote the history of architecture: the Bauakademie by Schinkel. The discussion nowadays is on how, and if, to rebuild it.

Our (provocative) proposal is to build it as it was originally, but changing its function, from a place where one can study, meet, and create, into a monument; a monument that does not host any of these uses but is the meaning itself of all of these principles. How is this achieved?

It is realised through a cenotaph for Karl Friedrich Shinkel in the heart of Berlin.

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FORI IMPERIALI UNDERGROUND STATION Underground station museum | Roma (IT) Master in Architecture and Museography for Archaeology | Accademia Adrianea, 2018

When we walk around Rome we must keep in mind that we have thousads of years of history beneath us. The level of the street divides the world into two separate entities; they are never in communication except, for example, when there is an underground station.

This design problem specifically challenged us to consider both technical and historical issues.

The station is situated on the site of an old basilica and the structural scansion of the old existing pillars is reproduced on the street level.

A new story is now told:The ancient world is coming out from the underground and the continuous and massive flows of people are walking through Via dei Fori Imperiali to and from the Colosseum.

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IN DIALOGUE WITH GRA(fton)VITY Intensifying blocks | Torino (IT) Master in Architecture | Politecnico di Torino, 2017

inside you see the compexity of it.

We wanted to create not only a building, but something that rises to the level of discourse, that makes you hesitate in everyday life, and for a moment at least consider the potential of living in a better society.

Our first task was to analyse the philosophy of a well-known international architectural firm of our own choosing. Our choice was Grafton Architects, as their approach to architecture seemed to be the most suitable for the intervention area and context. Going deeply into their design process, we pointed out some crucial themes that can be summarised through this abstract:

We are deeply interested in the life of the city, in reading the map and mapping the reading.

Cities are the fabric of time as layers of history.

We decided to keep the regular form of a Turinese block, a sort of vernacular, which is to us a way of being, rather than a style. We were also fascinated by the small-scale dimension of the area located north-west of the site, with small two-storeyhouses and no cars; just pedestrian strolling.

We worked with a complex section, emotional in a way. We kept a ground floor of shops, according to the tradition of Torino, over which we have three-storeys of residential, then there is a public, pedestrian space raised from the city level. From the outside you perceive the building as a whole and in a way, classic, Turinese block. From the

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GERMANASCA 37 Addition to a historic building, conceptual design | Torino (IT) Master in Architecture | Politecnico di Torino, 2017

Old buildings: every ancient city has plenty; ugly buildings: every city has these too. But unefficient buildings? No city should have these. These are the main points on which this project is based.

After thorough energy and consumption analysis, the decision was taken to remove the existing roof and demolish the attic. This led to the design of a contemporary intervention that clearly wants to detach from the building below, showing the separation layer and making it visible.

It may contrast with the context, but the very exercise was to emphasize the difference between what was the original part, with its beauties and its challenges, and what is the new part. Architectural projects do not always have to look like a unique block, a one-piece thing; sometimes quality stands in the result of oppositions, coherent with the design process, being an expression of its time.

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L3 Thermal complex in Hadrian’s Villa | Roma (IT) Piranesi Prix de Rome | Accademia Adrianea, 2017 First Prize Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli (Rome, Italy) is one of the most important and famous archaeological sites in the world and since the early XVI century it has been studied by archaeologists, students and architects. It is considered to be the first kind of urban planning that includeded a water system and it also contains huge thermal structures.

Here is the occasion to design a contemporary thermal complex, in the very heart of the villa and in continuity with the morphological nature of the site, remaining respectful of the surroundings.

The general setting of the intervention follows the original organisation of the Roman thermal baths: apodyterium, frigidarium, tepidarium and calidarium are in sequence and other accessory spaces complete the full experience, such as a gym (thermopolium), relaxation areas and a cafè/ restaurant.

Roman thermal baths also functioned as exhibition spaces, with amazing paintings and statues; this new complex does the same, showing pieces found during the excavations that are now preserved in the Villa.

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25_65 Student accomodation | Napoli (IT) International competition by Instaura | Torino, 2017 Special Mention together into a harmonious unicum that offers the students the best possible comfort, for the smallest amount of space.

This student accomodation is not only a building, it is also the occasion for the re-design of the site, in continuitiy with the city and its history.

The descending topography of the place gave us the opportunity of creating two separated zones, defining a ‘below’ zone where the city continues telling its thousand-year-old story, and an ‘above’ zone, where a new block is now needed.

From the outside, the complex reinterprets the rhythm of the baroque city, showing the same tonalities and materials, but looking like a unique block. Inside the court the level of discourse is raised up to a more dynamic approach: the whole complex is composed of different houses hosting from 20 to 25 students in single or double rooms, sharing a kitchen and livingroom and the pithced roofs of the private rooms underline the idea of a ‘house for a student’. Narrow streets take place within the single blocks.

Here, the points of view are multiplied, lines are fragmented, but the design-criteria is consistent: a module of 2.5 by 6.5 metres, the same as of the monasteries’ bedrooms, gives space to a small bathroom, a bed, wardrobes and a wide desk.

Furniture, structure and technological details meld

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MAB New museum in an abandoned farmstead | Viterbo (IT) Bachelor in Architecture | Politecnico di Torino, 2016

After the restoration of this old farm, the municipality of Capodimonte asked Politecnico di Torino to present some projects for a museum for the ancient etruscan capital, called Bisentium.

One of the most interesting places of the area is a colombarium, which is the main theme of this project: the adjustment of a schematic and strict structure, reinterpreted using parametric design technique. It is thus possible to reproduce any shape, thanks to side-by-side panels following a grid.

The whole museum experience turns in and around this idea, with rooms where a ‘colombario setting’ is prevailing.

A strong relationship of architecture-expositionvisitor is established, a relationship in which there are no primary or secondary characters, the visitor never feels oppressed by the architecture in which they are integrated, no inferiority sense exists.

Just three main characters, three primus inter pares (from latin: first between equals).

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DUO SPACE Residential building | Torino (IT) Bachelor in Architecture | Politecnico di Torino, 2016

The main idea of the project is the duality that is repeated on many aspects: the birth of private places means at the same time birth of public spaces; the regular facade alternates with voids that when working together create intreplays of light and shadow; the main colours of the projects are white and black.

The ground floor hosts commercial spaces. There are four different types of apartments: studio apartments, two-room apartments, three-room apartments and five-room apartments. Each type of flat can be arranged in many different ways; this translates into a varied plan and facade.

The windows on the external facades follow a strict grid and are all flush-facade or loggias. The internal facades, conversely, have a predominance of overhanging balconies.

The green roof allows a complete use of the top floor. It is divided into private and semi-public areas for residents, accessible by private stairs from the fifth floor.

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LPL New London Public Library | London (UK) International competition by ArchMedium | Johannesburg, 2015

The purpose of the international competition (announced by ArchMedium) was to design the new Public Library in Potters Fields Park, just between Tower Bridge and London City Hall.

London has always been a city ‘on the move’, with plenty of industries, skyscrapers, as well as green areas. Potters Fields Park is maybe one of the most attractive ones, facing the Thames and surrounded by amazing examples of contemporary architecture.

We took part in the competition, carrying on the idea of keeping the area as green as it is in its real configuration. So the library is a full-ecological building, with a green roof which simulates the meeting between city and nature.

Its particular shape is reminiscent of an orchestrapit, in which people can enjoy the skyline of the city.

The project, thus, becomes not only a building between and behind others buildings, but a real part of the city, a real part of everyone’s life.

Light is as important as nature, indeed a big empty volume at the centre of the library gives light to all the rooms and the playground that finds space at the undergound level.

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FROM PAUSE TO STOP Residential complex | Torino (IT) Bachelor in Architecture | Politecnico di Torino, 2015

The project’s aim was to return importance to a place which was in the heart of one of the most crowded and widely used routes connecting Italy and France, in Val di Susa.

It is structured on three main axis: housing, public spaces and connections.

The residential area has houses in line with the river path, and their facades reproduce a mountain profile. As far as the internal organization is concerned, each block has two levels and is divided into four categories: 4 studio-apartments, 4 tworoom apartments, 4 three-room apartments and 4 four-room apartments. The global composition is flexible and, thanks to the size of the apartments, different configurations are possible.

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ARCHITECTURE PORTOFOLIO selected works 2015 - 2020 simone.collinetti@gmail.com