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 for the sustainable residential conversion was to preserve the industrial, loft like characteristics of the buildings and at the same time to create spaces which seemed lived-in and natural. The new, bigger windows in burgundy metal maintained the existing loft-like subdivision creating interesting shadows. The floors are in natural materials such as reclaimed wood, beton ciré and local stone while the existing bricks and stone textures of the walls have been sanded and preserved. Iconic furnirure pieces, such as the Carimate chairs by Italian Vico Magistretti, the leather armchairs by Brazilian Sergio Rodriguez and the danish cone pendants by Jorgen Wolf.
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.