G. De Carlo, A. De Eccher, G. Girardi
architects

ITINERARY

Andrea de Eccher won the Europan 4 competition, “Constructing the city upon the city”, on the site of Cagliari (I) in 1996 with Giorgio Girardi. The project was implemented in 2000 with a third architect Giuseppe De Carlo. From 1994, they have been working all three in many different projects and in 2003 they founded in Venice OP Architetti Associati. In 1994, they started their own practice and participated in competitions obtaining many prizes (Conegliano, Padua, Cagliari, Trieste, Prato, Noventa Padovana, Milano).
Andrea de Eccher is graduated, summa cum laude, from Venice University Institute of Architecture (IUAV).
Until 1994, he participated on research projects in IUAV. In 2001-2002 he collaborated with the architectural design laboratory 2 of Milan Polytechnic. Since 2002, he has been contract professor of urban design at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Trieste.
Recently the team has put effort into planning and research activity on the integrated design of suburban areas and social housing districts, dealing with sustainability, urban design and experimental housing aspects.

URBANITY IN HOUSING

The growing demand for better urban quality explains the special interest in the topics of social housing and the public city, together with the implementation of a process of eco-sustainable urban regeneration, involving project designers, residents and municipal officers

Milan (I) - Contextualised dwellings

The project proposes a mixed-use building (housing and shops) located in a social housing neighbourhood. The surrounding public space is reworked in the form of circular podiums to match the shape of the site, opening pedestrian pathways that lead to the adjacent great park.
The four-storey building establishes a perimeter: on the concave side (welcoming and turned inwards) with semi-communal gardens planted with trees, and on the concave side, towards the centre of the project zone, with a dynamic and shifting collective space, designed to be a locus of transit and encounter as well as the hub of the neighbourhood.

URBAN VOIDS

Planning a public space is often quite a complex challenge, which involves configuring places of social interaction, multiple and dynamic types of use, and giving a meaning to an empty space, using few project elements, and relying on the design and modelling of the ground.

Caldogno (I) - New central square

The project defines the empty space through simple operations: uniform and high density paving in a small porphyry cubes over the whole public space, and three furnished stone pathways, dressed with slabs of Istrian stone. They enable the relations between the elements to be interpreted immediately and provide a concrete base to allow the different forms of social life to develop

CULTURAL SPACE

Educational and cultural spaces in modern cities are no longer to be seen as technical facilities but as shared urban amenities to be incorporated into the urban fabric with attention to their context and the to environment.

Cagliari (I) - Media centre

The refurbishment of the 1950s covered market creates a socially and culturally prestigious centre for the town and region, and enhances the suburban area to the west of the historic centre.
The demolition of the whole structure, with the exception of the outside walls, and the unattractive urban landscape around, explain the construction of an “in-turned” complex, which gets its identity through this new public space: a long courtyard, roofed with matting like the streets of Seville.

NEW IN OLD

The encounter with different historical contexts creates a dialogue in which the process of change gives sites a new meaning. The project thus aspires to interpret complexity, stratify places and achieve a constantly renewed collective identity.

Arco Di Trento (I) - Cultural centre

The competition is to develop a defined area in the 19th-century town of Arco di Trento into a multifunctional urban public space. The introduction of the auditorium, a large new structure, creates the problem of reinterpreting the urban fabric. In dealing with this, the project opts to maintain and reinforce the nature of the place, whilst maintaining the original relationship between the buildings, the wall and the garden. The urban structure is kept intact and at the same time its perception and symbolic meaning as a new central focus for the whole town is more visible.

Europan Generation, The reinterpreted city Catalogue
Editions: Cité de l’architecture and Europan, May 2007
224 colour pages, bilingual English/French


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