Gianluca Comandini Architecture
Workshop & Competitions
Temporary Pavilion
Venice | 2013
The theme chosen favoring the wishes of the Mexican government to take advantage of the extraordinary interior of San Lorenzo Church for the exhibition pavilion of the Venice Biennale, is a new functionalization of the former church, making an exposition space.
The first room will be used entirely to exhibition area dedicated exclusively to the Mexican government, a structure that supports an auditorium space divided vertically into two areas: at the lower level panels covered with wooden slats mask the supporting elements of the above floor and host skylight wells offering walls exploitable for paintings, models and displays affixing. The second room is dedicated to the archaeological excavations and finds mosaic. The floor will be hosting a large rectangular central void in which a low-floor will allow a closer view of the mosaics and the excavations.
Orphanage College
Hwange | 2013
The project involves the construction of five units designed to accommodate the teachers, who carry out their activities within the college and their families. The houses are developed on the edge of the court which is designed as a meeting place and enriched in the central part with a tank that holds most of the rainwater coming from the roofs of the houses. The rainwater recovery system is also designed for the private areas; outside of any accommodation there are two water tanks who can also become a socialization place.
Each apartment has a kitchen area, a service, an indoor dining room and three bedrooms. To complete the intervention and reinforce this idea of socialization among the various families we can find a system of community gardens behind the individual units and opposed to the main access.
Tall on the water
Mestre | 2012
The shifted and undulating landscape allows for the perpendicular streets for the vehicular access to pass through under, and over allowing a continuous pedestrian promenade towards the marina.
Programmatically, the tower is a multi-family housing which supports the hotel structurally and conceptually, which was a result of an urban study of the ratio of the local Venetian and Mestre population, in contrast to the touristic visitors of the famous area being the main source of its economy. The idea of an economic and social symbiotic tectonic was observed with the interaction and interrelation of these two elements, being the “host” and the “guest,” which co-exist harmoniously.
As these two elements are interlocked with the shared spine of the core, so too it is sectionally with a shared single-loaded corridor (in the housing), creating an almost Corbusian/Unité de Habitacíon access which solves the idea of providing for a view of Venice for every single unit, and also creating double-height spaces and mezzanine levels.