Atlas Edificio per abitazioni in via Tommaso Grossi

Adapted to the shape of its plot, the building is wedged into a mountainside. Hence only four of the nine floors are unobstructed on all sides; the others are back onto the mountain. The volume is divided into two buildings oriented along a south-east/north-west axis, set at an angle to each other and with a slight difference in height, which determines the gently sloping roofline on the facade facing the city. From the entryway, a straight staircase leads to the stair and lift well, which forms the central link between the two buildings. The apartments, two per floor from the first to the fourth level and four per floor on the upper levels, are almost all large, with very varied and inventive internal layouts, large living rooms with panoramic views and terraces at the ends of the building. The facade facing south-west, the most visible from the city, presents features and expressive elements common to architectures by Asnago and Vender: clinker cladding pierced by the apparently rigorous two-dimensional composition of the white-painted wood window frames, the subtle play of misalignments, the presence of exceptional elements: small metal bow-windows, the only protrusions in a facade that does not allow itself the obvious luxury of a balcony. The two ends have greater volumetric complexity, with large triangular terraces, loggias and protrusions, a variety of windows. The north-west front is perhaps the most interesting, although the least visible: here the terraces extend into the steps of the external terrain on the mountainside, while a large panoramic bow-window emerges from the valley edge. We can recognize familiar elements of Asnago and Vender’s architectural vocabulary: windows partly in wood, partly metal, some of which protrude from the facade, parapets in knotted wire mesh painted white, parts covered in clinker and others plastered.