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The famous ceramic factory of Laveno occupied a privileged site with a beautiful South-facing exposure and a spectacular view over the lago Maggiore.
On the site of the former “Ceramiche Laveno”, in an intervention held by various architectural firms, CZA was entrust with the task of developing the project facing the lake. Renewal plan searches for an architectural language capable to graft the new complex into the existing lake promenade.
The new buildings are organized by a series of simple principles that rules the arrangement of the stair blocks, the atriums and the private open spaces in relation to the long views of the lake and to light sun exposition during the various seasons and to the public paths structure.
The lake front is characterized by a screen of tight scanning stone loggias displaying as an urban curtain.
The ground floor is crowned by a stone and plaster “screen” of loggia which mediate the scale of the landscape with the private dimension of the apartments. This covered path overlooking the garden forms the backbone of the new complex. It is from there that the minor public paths branch off to go up till the land terraces above, and it also represents the distribution area to reach the small atria to access to the lodgings above the commercial spaces.
While on the one hand the “screens” on the lake front respond to a typological need to provide generous loggias overlooking the lake to each apartment, on the other hand these elements become a point of transition and dialogue between the scale of the city and the private dimension of the residence. The facades are like transitional microclimates between the outside and the inside where form becomes a necessary translation between one system and the other.
The horizontal development of the buildings occasionally loses its wall consistency broken in elevation by more diaphanous elements: “the pergolas”, rising above the upper profile of the buildings, and developing on the roof, defining the design of the terraces.
If the lake side is distinguished by the extensive use of white stone in different textures, the side facing the mountain is in grey plaster with coloured sliding windows shutters. The dimensions and balances of walls, windows and loggias take over some of the architectural elements of the area without nostalgic references.
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