Vacchini Architects Studio

Livio Vacchini, 1984-85

The building appears as a parallelepiped suspended on pilotis, anchored to the ground by the two header partitions and the external entrance staircase placed to the side. The ground floor, used for parking, is divided by the pitch of the pillars and is free. The first floor is completely glazed and has no support structures for the upper floor. This is presented as a long blind reinforced concrete wall covered with travertine. In fact, this is a long beam of 27.5 metres resting on the side walls also made of reinforced concrete. It is a bridge structure with which the architect experiments with the possibility of building by means of prestressed plates, which in this case follow the orientation of the construction and act as a large “blade”. This will be folded over and become the roof of the Lido in Ascona, although the Lido project began in 1984. With these two projects, the architect elaborates a reflection on the constructive, spatial and formal values of the prestressed plates, which will find different conformations and meanings in the house in Costa in 1991 and in the multi-purpose building in Losone in 1995.

From  “Livio Vacchini, opere e progetti” by Roberto Masiero