Sustainable residential conversion in Pietrasanta

Planning:

Pietrasanta is a lovely medieval town known in Tuscany, for its marble and bronze workshops, artists and monuments. It is named the Little Athens of Italy, thanks to the many international artists that chose Pietrasanta as their adopted country.

Flair Studio was appointed to convert an area within the pedestrian city centre composed of 3 abandoned marble workshops, a turret which was part of the medieval city walls and an abandoned courtyard with an existing monumental fique tree.

The development plan for the sustainable residential conversion aimed to recover an area which was currently degraded and abandoned, preserving both the formal characteristics and the materials and technologies of the local building tradition updated and blending interior design with the most modern techniques for energy consumption and Sustainability.

Interior Design:

The design brief was to preserve the industrial, loft-like characteristics of the existing buildings and at the same time to create spaces which seemed lived-in and natural.

The new, bigger windows in burgundy powder coated metal contributed to enhance the industrial look while casting interesting shadows on the interiors. The floors are natural materials such as reclaimed wood, microcement and local stone. Thee existing textures of the brick walls have been sanded and preserved, some of them have been painted white, some brought back to the original colour.

Iconic furniture pieces  like the Carimate chairs by Vico Magistretti the leather chairs by Sergio Rodriguez and the wooden cone pendants by Jorgen Wolf contribute to give character to the interiors.

Sustainability:

Centralised system for air conditioning, cooling and sanitized water using a single machine that serves the hole complex but allows for the single units to be controlled autonomously.
The high efficiency heat pump system is much more efficient than the traditional boiler systems and is also paired with photovoltaic energy which makes the unit save on electric consumption as well as keeps the unit less charged.
Very high standards for thermal insulation in order to reduce the ecological footprint including thermal barriers, triple glazing, additional insulation to the existing walls and more, see also passivhaus.

Please visit the art gallery in Pietrasanta by clicking here