08/11/12 11.59Forms of Energy #5 - Architecture - Domus

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Alessandra Scognamiglio, Marialuisa PalumboAuthor

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Forms of Energy #5—Quartiere Violino, Brescia. The extension of the Violino district in Brescia, designed by Boschi +Serboli Architetti Associati, in collaboration with Cigognetti-Piccardi-Vitale shows that low-costbuilding can be combined with environmental awareness. An report from by

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architecture BresciaAlessandra Scognamiglio Marialuisa Palumbo

A strong feature of the Violino district project is its extensive use ofphotovoltaic technology, which number-wise makes Brescia one of theItalian cities with the greatest installed power pro capita and in terms ofform has turned the district into a mosaic of blue roofs. It is not only thephotovoltaics that make the Violino project interesting. Althoughphotovoltaic technology is the visually most striking sign of a sustainabledesign, other strategies focusing on the envelope or systems design maybe more silent but are equally important.

A dual network that separates drinking and non-drinking water, arainwater collection system that distributes it in the aquifer, districtheating, induction hobs and passive bioclimatic solutions all make Violinoa fascinating district and perhaps one of the most significant experimentsin low-cost social housing in recent years because it has shown that theneeds of low-cost building can be combined with energy andenvironmental awareness.

The design of this type of district was made possible both by theadministration's ability to adopt innovative instruments during thedecision-making process and on site and by the designers' ability tooperate within the narrow confines of an Area Plan in which the set formof the sites, building regulations and town-planning restrictions appearedto leave little room for manoeuvre in the search for innovative solutions.

This extension project has a long and fascinating history. The district firstoriginated in 1980, with the Brescia master plan drawn up by Secchi,Viganò and Scarsato but the most important date for our purposes is

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2002, when the City of Brescia issued a competitive tender for theassignation and construction of building sites for the southwestexpansion. The announcement was extremely innovative and concretelyshaped a request for the submitted proposals to meet requirements thatwould steer the construction of the district towards quantifiable qualityobjectives. it showed a desire to "measure" the quality and sustainabilityof the design but also to compare the costs of such requisites with thoseof the standard requirements for low-cost and social housing. Inparticular, in keeping with the procedure established, the preliminarydesigns were assessed by awarding points, based on their compliancewith building and performance quality requisites (e.g. thermal acousticand hygrometric insulation). This made it physically possible to separatethe standard costs from those linked to the quality innovationsintroduced.

In building terms, the project was to reiterate the type already adopted inthe Violino district. The built project consists in terraced housing (143units in all) and two five-storey apartment blocks, arranged in lots withinan orthogonal grid. In keeping with the principles of bioclimaticarchitecture and compatibly with the already established generalorganisation, the buildings were given a design suited to their function assolar collectors, capable not only of capturing the sun's heat but also ofkeeping it inside the structure (via the choice of suitable materials andtechnology systems). The design of the terraced houses and blocks wasbased on a simple principle: "protection" to the north and "capture" to thesouth. The functional organisation and choice of materials and systemstechnology all obeyed the same rule.

The terraced houses are built in two different types but to the same simpleprinciple: the functional layout is studied so that the storage/bathroomspaces and stairwells, closed by heavy insulating doors, act as a bufferspace to the north and the most lived-in parts of the house are arrangedaround conservatories on the south side. The use of sun-blinds anddeciduous trees stops the glazed areas overheating in summer. The singleunits are arranged to minimise any overshadowing of adjacent units.Volumetrically, one type features the rotation of the south-facing side ofthe building, which detaches from the main building mass to configure aconservatory on the ground floor. The other presents an extremely simplemass, dictated by the shape of the site. The need to capture solar energyand place it at the disposal of the house users is translated into twoconservatories, one on the ground floor adjacent to the living room andthe other on the first floor. Every terraced house has a photovoltaicsystem with a nominal power of 1.3kWp set on the sloping roof and eachhouse has a meter for the energy produced, meaning users can verifyproper system efficiency at all times. The energy exchanged with the gridis measured by a two-way meter; information displays in communalspaces illustrate the apartment block system's production.

On a final note, the Violino project seems a total success, showing that"low-cost and social" solutions are compatible with quality objectives andtechnology that saves and produces energy. However, we cannot butwonder (and ask the designers and even more so those who dictated therules) whether so much uniformity and repetition was really so essential.In other words, what is truly lacking when we look at the Violino project isspatial variety, individuality and articulation. This is no random questionor whim. We must remember that the quality of the space we live in is

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based partly, and perhaps principally, on its ability to stimulate oursenses and our minds, and that the information (stimulus) lies precisely indifference, that something different that suddenly asks us to think (opensup a horizon). Alessandra Scognamiglio, Marialuisa Palumbo

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