urban sponge

The project concept is a vision of the world as a conglomeration of both natural and artificial phenomena. The industrial containers are manipulated in a process of re-signifyng in a new association with the enviromantal elements.
The containers are appropriately modified and used as giant brick, a formal and spatial unit to suggest a new way of living, suited to the needs of the contemporary life.
The proposal is a variable density urban housing complex designed to function as a natural-artificial “urban sponge” filtering the incoming urban inputs.
The concept is a contest’s reading starting from the pre-existent urban plot and introducing a cartesian grid in the competition area favoring a general sense of order and orientation.
The strong lining up decided by the pre-existing railway axis is used in the project to answer to the need of “delimitation”, establishing a sense of ownership to the place –housing- through the primitive act of building in the land and erecting a place that is in contrast and in accordance with the natural vastness of the flat land.
This delimitation is visualized with a strong allignment to the north edge of the area, with the more dense part of the complex proposing a real urban facade.
The rest of the complex is a free assemblage of low density housing units.
All the complex is interconnected by a system of pathways and public spaces, with commercial and alternative activities, that have the role of hinge-connection between the housing complex and the urban context around.
project team:stefania papitto & gianluca evels