Ex Arena Braga

Ex "Arena Braga" Multipurpose Building
The site is part of the urban expansion of a city of the sprawling city along the Adriatic coast. It is located behind one of the oldest and most glorious entertainment structures: the Kursaal. The building is arranged on a rectangular east-west lot close to the waterfront. The themes of the project confront the morphology and typology conditions that may initially appear disadvantageous:
- a highly elongated form;
- a use at grade (equipment, services, cinema) that requires a completely free space;
- the presence on the south side of a very tall and close-set building.
The project reinterprets these conditions by treating them as architectural elements:
- to free up the ground floor, all vertical distribution is concentrated at one end, defining the main elevation;
- the theme of introspection and the regulation/collection of light, induced by the strong presence of the border, were used to generate a glass skin that wraps the building, becoming the interface between interior and exterior.
It is similar to a skin that bends and peels way, screening views and simultaneously capturing natural light. The skin is a surface of reflections and reverberations.
The building is occupied by vacation properties. The highly elongated morphology suggested a resemblance with nautical spaces, rather than homes on land. The units are accessed via a long “bridge” at the uppermost floor that leads to the main living areas.
Steel and wood stairs lead from the open living room/kitchen to the lower levels (below deck) or up to a deck/terrace. The units "float" above a void and dematerialised ground floor framed by a glass wall. The comparison, with the Kursaal occurs in the continuous contrast of lightweight forms and materials (glass, metal, laminate) opposed to the material qualities of the masses of the plastered surfaces of the Kursaal.
For us the project reflects the images of the white mosaic clad blade that emerges from between the neoclassical buildings of Corso Italia in Milan, or the house of the Astrea cooperative and the "Girasole" apartment block in Viale Bruno Buozzi in Rome. Function becomes the pretext for confronting projects designed by Italian architects during the 1950s/60s. Fragments of history of great interest, for their approach to the hybrid, the multiple, the uncertain. A mixed condition that I believe can be found in our work.
A tribute to Luigi Moretti.