Please, introduce yourself…

Spaziozero is based in Cagliari, Italy. Lorenzo Ciccu and Simone Langiu started the office in 2016, while Carlo Pisano joined the group one year later. Nicola Melis contributes continuously to the group work since 2017. The group has won numerous awards in national and international competitions of design ranging from the scale of the architectural object and building renovation, urban and landscape projects. The last year we have been concentrating our work and research on schools, housing, energy and architectural redevelopment and spatial quality of the new transformations especially in disused areas within the urban city fabric. We started the office slowly after winning a couple of second prizes and obtaining some other good result. Finally last year we won together with «RE:Landscape» two important competitions. The first was "the Europan 14" in Linz (Austria), where, after a post-processing competition, in the upcoming months we are going to develop together with a local office, a legally binding land-use plan for the new "Wienerstrasse Quartier". The second is the redevelopment of the waterfront of city of Stintino in Sardinia, that is currently under design. Right after that we won also the first prize in the architectural competitionto design a socialhousing building in Bolzano (IT) with the studio «OlivieriOffice» from Genoa.

How did you find your way into the field of Architecture?

We are all graduated in Architecture at the University of Cagliari, although we have completed our training at various European Universities and at several international offices. Lorenzo completed his studies at the University of Kassel in Germany, and attended a postgraduate master in urban design at the UPC Barcelona. After that he moved to Berlin where he worked three years at SMAQ Architecture and Urbanism developing large scale masterplans and most recently residential projects. Simone after the school moved to Seville to collaborate with the office Solinas Serra Architects joining competitions in Spain and Italy. He won several competitions with different groups and he is currently a scholar at the University of Cagliari in the field of revitalization of peripheral and suburban areas. Carlo after the degree attended a postgraduate master in urbanism at TU Delft and worked for Studio Bernardo Secchi e Paola Viganò in Brussels in several international competitions and projects including the «Masterplan of Nieuw Zuid» in Antwerp, the vision for «Greater Moscow» and «Brussels 2040». After that he took a PhD in Urbanism at the University of Cagliari and now he is researcher at the University of Florence.

What is the essence of architecture for you personally?

We are a very young office so I would say it is quite difficult for us to give an answer to this question. We are still defining ourself in the field but there a few points that are probably recurring in our projects and process. The variety of themes and scales of our projects is linked by an approach that pursues the relationship between architecture and urban space. Always looking for the maximum spatial quality of the proposal. The capacity of architecture to create space and places rather than forms is always our starting point. The lack of a specific language and a strong pragmatism in the architectural choices are two other main characteristic of our approach to the project. This allow us to start every competition and project with the right freedom and with the awareness that the context on which we intervene is more important than language ​​and formalism. This approach is reiterated both in urban transformations on a large scale and on small design operations. The projects always arise from a careful analysis of the place, from its measures, its materials, its atmosphere. From this toolkit we producer the raw materials we transpose into our projects. Architecture is part of history, it is the continuation of a process, a piece of the longest route of a city and a landscape. 

Project

Europan 14 - Post processing 
Linz
2018

The project aims to foster the process of transformation. In the last decades Linz has been transformed from an industrial city into an innovative town. As well in the productive as in the cultural sectors. The gradual conversion of the industrial heritage is the main tool to foster this process. Today the area of investigation represents the cornerstone of this approach.

The whole territory has a size of 110.000 sqm differentiated in: the northern part (1+2 project site with 36.000 sqm); the southern part (3) used by ÖBB’s Technical Service for maintaining and updating railway carriages and equipment. The project site is seen as the start of the new urban development south of the tracks. In this sense it is important to address different type of accessibility for different type of users. A new framework plan will provide the basis to start an urban transformation in which the site will keep the potential to offer spaces for work within the city, for new industries as well as for other forms of industrial production. Instead of trying to foresee the possible future program, the project wants to provide the maximum diversity in the productive space, allowing multiple and varied uses within the neighborhood: wide covered surfaces for industry 4.0, commerce and storage; smaller spaces for start-up, creative industries or 0 Km retails; large renewed industrial shed for co-working or artistic related production; open air production spaces for new types of artisans or farmers; as well as more traditional offices for different scale companies.

A clearly defined Wienerplatz becomes the main entry point for the new urban quarter. We propose a careful sequence of urban spaces, public and private, each with different degrees of openness and intimacy. Large, representative open spaces create identity and places of exchange, while smaller pocket spaces offer possibilities for interactions. A variety of housing typologies, as well as a range of commercial, productive and administrational functions, create a new form of urban living and working. The project proposes to develop a high-density urban environment defined using the block typology together with high rises, combined to create a diverse urban environment.

Client: ÖBB-Immobilienmanagement GmbH, City of Linz

Location: Linz, Austria 

Prize: First prize

Program: mixed use masterplan 

Date: 2017

Team: Spaziozero atelier + RE:Landscape

Status: Implementation process

Website: www.spaziozeroatelier.com

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Pictures © Spaziozero atelier

Interview: kntxtr, 04/2018

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