Heritage & Urban Regeneration

Casa Bossi

Location

Novara, Italy (historic centre, by the Basilica and dome of San Gaudenzio)

Year

2018 — ongoing (construction design phase)

Client

PPP - Municipality of Novara + REAM SGR S.p.A. (Valorizzazione e Innovazione Piemonte real estate fund)

Typology

Restoration · Refurbishment (recovery)

Status

Ongoing · Construction design

Casa Bossi is the restoration and recovery of a historic building by Alessandro Antonelli, in the very centre of Novara, a few steps from the Basilica and the dome of San Gaudenzio. Protected by the Soprintendenza and abandoned for many years, the building is coming back to life through a re-functionalisation that respects its extraordinary vaulted structure: on the ground floor, public spaces for temporary exhibitions and food and drink venues promoting the excellence of the region; on the first floor, offices and homes; on the upper floors, homes. The project stems from the public-private partnership between the Municipality of Novara and REAM SGR (Valorizzazione e Innovazione Piemonte fund), the same partnership that includes the regeneration of the former Municipal Abattoir.

Project Elevation

The Project

Overview

The project concerns the restoration and recovery of Casa Bossi, a historic building by Alessandro Antonelli in the very centre of Novara, a few steps from the Basilica and the dome of San Gaudenzio, protected by the Soprintendenza for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape. The aim is to bring back to life a dilapidated building, abandoned for many years, through a refunctionalization of the spaces: on the ground floor, common spaces for public use - temporary exhibitions and restaurant premises promoting the excellences of the city and of Piedmont; on the first floor, offices (with the possibility of periodic public visits) and residences; on the second and third floors, residences. The intervention is the result of the public-private partnership between the Municipality of Novara and REAM SGR S.p.A., through the Valorizzazione e Innovazione Piemonte real-estate fund, which also includes the urban-regeneration intervention of the former Slaughterhouse of Novara.

The Challenge

The main challenge was to take on a historic building by a master such as Antonelli, who used a structure of piers with extremely thin, taut vaults: a recovery of great interest from both an architectural and a structural standpoint. Equally delicate was adapting a system of efficient, new-generation building services to a nineteenth-century building - all in compliance with the strict provisions of the Soprintendenza.

Pre-Development & Governance

We entered the preliminary design phase mid-course, joining the firm ASSET srl of Rome, which had already begun the historical research on the building and the assessment of the permissible loads on the slabs. Once the historical research was complete, we set about finding a "content": activities capable of sustaining the operation without distorting the container. The numerous meetings with the Municipality and the Soprintendenza brought the project up to the detailed design phase, currently ongoing, in view of a private tender. The building was admitted to Public Funding for Artistic and Cultural Heritage; great importance was given to the preliminary phase of cataloguing, with a photographic dossier of each of the building's roughly 200 rooms.

Systems & Technical Coordination

Although it is a building of modest size, its historic importance required extensive collaboration and coordination between us and ASSET, including in the choice of professionals for structures and systems with specific experience in historic and protected environments. We conducted research on the building and on the technologies used by Antonelli, in order to define a non-invasive type of intervention: the spaces were kept intact, without cutting the vaults, leaving the building's distinctive features untouched. The stratigraphic tests carried out by the Conservation and Restoration Centre La Venaria Reale in every room produced a complete mapping of the building. Although the historic constraint allows exemptions on acoustic and thermal aspects, we chose not to ignore these aspects, which contribute to comfort of use, especially in the residential part. On the structural side: repairs and consolidations carried out from above the crowns of the vaults. On the systems side: the use of the numerous existing flues in the walls, to conceal the pipe runs as much as possible.

Process Management

The process, still ongoing, involves numerous professionals - including Eng. Dario Luetto for structures and systems and Arch. Daniela Russo of the Conservation and Restoration Centre La Venaria Reale, in particular for the stratigraphic tests on the surfaces. Coordination takes place through weekly meetings and numerous site inspections, involving also the Municipality and the Soprintendenza of Novara in the shared search for restoration solutions. The final deliverables of each discipline are coordinated and checked before every official submission.

Value Added

For the client: the culmination of a challenge begun in 2017, which today sees a concrete possibility of being realized. For the territory: the recovery of a dilapidated historic asset, a city icon closed to the public for safety reasons, restored to the community and to tourists as a fundamental piece of the Antonellian heritage, integrated into a circuit of excellence in the Novara area. For users: spaces in a fascinating, unusual and finally usable historic dwelling, which will lend prestige to the activities that settle there. For us: an experience that tested us in the recovery of a historic building - restoration, structures, systems, without forgetting the historic narrative and the building's distinctive features. A project that teaches a great deal.