Palazzo SM Presicce
Design studio – Studio Alami
Project Manager – Valentina Marta Rubrichi
Design team – Fabiano Spano, Susanna Tundo
Typology – Ristrutturazione ed efficientamento energetico
Construction company – Hidrogreen service s.r.l.
Years – 2021-2023
Site – Presicce, Lecce
Photographer – Alice Fiorilli
The project involved the renovation of a building of architectural value inserted in the urban plan of historical interest of the Municipality of Presicce. The two main objectives of this project were: 1) to proceed with the conservation and restoration of the original distribution and organizational system, freeing the building from those artifacts that compromised stability, usability, recognition and reading in a philological sense; 2) to equip a historic building with systems that would guarantee a high level of energy efficiency.
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The renovation project involved the preservation of the existing original architectural elements, through a conservative restoration, and the adaptation of the building to modern needs while maintaining the forms, materials, and construction techniques of the tradition. With this in mind, it was considered appropriate to free the south facade from artifacts that, in addition to not being of interest in the history of the building, compromised its recognition and reading in a philological sense. The main access to the building is from the garden in which the ancient pre-existing hexagonal columns have been preserved, restored, and repositioned. The restoration project of the imposing south facade aimed to bring order, to establish a well-defined hierarchy, emphasizing the presence of the large windows in the center of the building and resizing the pre-existing openings, improving the hygienic-sanitary conditions, respecting the proportions of the existing openings and maintaining the alignments. The large windows facing south required, in addition to the important thermal performance of the glass and the installed frames, the inclusion of a solar radiation screen through a roller blind system fully embedded in the upper part of the window itself so that this contemporary element does not conflict with the design of the pre-existing windows. The large room with a flat ceiling intended for the living area was “freed” from the presence of a volume inside, thus creating a single large entrance environment, connected to all the other spaces of the house, in which a reclaimed herringbone parquet was inserted as a floor, which characterizes the environment. The bedrooms are equipped with “wings” of a height lower than that of the vault impost, behind which the shower and sink are located. As for the perimeter walls of the building, a restoration work was carried out aimed at improving the thermal comfort and efficiency of the building itself by acting internally with a coat and externally with the restoration of the historic facades. In this building, a series of works aimed at the energy efficiency of the building were planned (access to state incentives provided by law 17 July 2020, n. 77, superbonus 110 percent) increasing a part of technologically more advanced systems compatible with the new needs of contemporary living: replacement of the winter air conditioning system consisting of a diesel boiler and cast iron radiators, with a new heat pump and fan coil air conditioning system; domestic hot water production system with a heat pump boiler; electricity generation system with photovoltaic panels plus storage batteries; centralized mechanical ventilation system with internal heat recovery unit; replacement of existing windows with new steel frames with thermal break and low-emission glass. In this way, a historic building has been equipped with systems that allow it to be energy efficient and be powered almost entirely by renewable sources capable of guaranteeing a high level of energy efficiency.