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Located at the gateway to Via Roma in Cagliari, the former Cariplo building stood abandoned despite its strategic position facing the port. The project was conceived as a response to the site's historical and urban significance, reimagining the structure as a permeable and civic architecture. The concept emerged from the desire to reconnect the building with the public realm, enhancing its role in the newly pedestrianized waterfront area. Through a dynamic façade and a redefined ground level, the intervention aims to restore architectural dignity and urban continuity.
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The project redefines the relationship between architecture and public space by opening the ground floor to the city and enhancing visual and physical permeability. Its curved podium aligns with the geometry of the adjacent square, encouraging fluid pedestrian movement and social interaction. The new façade engages with the urban rhythm while respecting the surrounding scale, restoring continuity with Via Roma and strengthening the connection between the city and the port.
The project transforms a former bank building, long abandoned, into a renewed urban presence at the entrance of Via Roma, one of Cagliari’s most symbolic and central streets. The intervention is guided by principles of openness, rhythm, and integration. A new modular façade composed of angled elements and deep frames gives the building a strong identity, balancing lightness and solidity, repetition and variation. The ground level is redefined by a curved colonnade that aligns with the geometry of the adjacent square, enhancing permeability and public use. This gesture reconnects the building with the pedestrian fabric of the waterfront, currently undergoing transformation. The addition of rooftop green spaces and photovoltaic panels underlines a commitment to environmental sustainability. The project’s strength lies in its ability to reactivate a strategic site, combining architectural clarity with urban responsibility, and restoring continuity between the city and its port-facing edge.
The project is a balanced act of urban renewal, turning an abandoned building into a contemporary and open civic space. Through a renewed dialogue with the city, the design restores dignity and meaning to a strategic site, blending memory and transformation along Cagliari’s waterfront.
Mei & Pilia Associati is an architecture firm based in Cagliari, operating since 1996 in architecture, urban planning and structures. The owners are Gianluca Pilia, engineer and founder, graduated in Civil Engineering at University of Cagliari, and Luciano Mei engineener, cofounder and graduated in Civil Engineering at University of Cagliari. The team of designer consists of five coworkers: Francesco Mulas, Taher Makkiui, Joele Loja , Maria Candelaria Barisone, Daniele Morrone, Alessia Secci. The studio works mostly for private buildings, such as residential buildings, villas, interiors, hotels, commercial, urban planning, restoration.
https://www.meiepilia.net
