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The concept emerged from observing Ligurian coastal façades and their balconies.
We distilled their proportions and vertical rhythm into a stainless-steel louvre grid that, while overtly contemporary, nods to local tradition. The typical polychrome frontage is reinterpreted as a transparent metallic screen that filters light and views.
At urban scale, a setback generates a forecourt that upgrades the seafront promenade and invites lingering. As the first unobstructed frontage on the shoreline, the building amplifies sea vistas, while sand-toned finishes and timber inserts embed biophilic principles, creating a sensory continuum between living space and landscape.
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The lungomare itself—more than a traffic artery, a collective living room—frames the project’s architectural narrative. Cantilevered terraces redraw the façade, recasting the former hotel as a new focal point along this promenade of shared identity. While respecting the prevailing cornice line, the intervention introduces a crisp, contemporary gesture that releases the building from the 1970s fabric around it.
Glass balustrades and uninterrupted balconies dematerialise the volume, refreshing the perception of scale and depth.
A nautical palette of stainless steel and seasoned timber locates the scheme culturally and geographically; slender wooden slats under the overhangs converse with passers-by, recalling maritime craftsmanship and anchoring the work in Liguria’s coastal heritage.
The project realises the urban regeneration of a disused seafront hotel, recasting it as a contemporary residential organism.
A continuous 15 cm insulating skin wraps the entire volume—including the party wall—eliminating thermal bridges, cutting heating and cooling demand by more than 40 percent, and prolonging the life of the structure.
On the south-east street frontage, full-height low-e acoustic glazing captures generous solar gain while filtering traffic noise, delivering both luminous interiors and acoustic comfort.
Recyclable stainless steel and timber complete a material palette perfectly aligned with the scheme’s sustainable ethos.
The project repurposes a former waterfront hotel as a contemporary residential complex, shifting its intended use and completely re-configuring the interior layout. Four of the building’s five storeys now accommodate a diversified mix of dwellings—compact one-bedroom suites, generous two-bedroom apartments, and a full-floor penthouse whose walk-on roof slab has been transformed into a panoramic terrace. With no buildings interposed between the volume and the shoreline, every unit enjoys an unobstructed sea view, markedly improving the vantage point from the beach and strengthening the visual dialogue with the horizon. The re-crafted street façade—articulated through a stainless-steel lattice, timber infills and broad glazed expanses—offers a contemporary reinterpretation of Ligurian frontages, evoking the region’s characteristic projecting balconies via cantilevered terraces. A recessed entrance unfolds into a semi-public forecourt that revitalises the seafront promenade, acting as both urban filter and invitation to linger. Guided by the principles of biophilic design, the intervention stages a sensorial continuum between interior and exterior: sand-toned finishes, timber textures, transparent planes, and open-air circulation routes forge an immediate connection between habitation and the sea, intensifying the site’s inherent human–nature bond.
The hotel’s transformation translates the concept of living the sea into tangible space: wide openings frame the horizon, terraces choreograph daylight and invite shared moments. The top-floor dwelling I inhabit is at once a refuge and a piazza suspended between city and water; each day I perceive the consonance between architectural form and the well-being of those who occupy it.
Born in Pavia, in 2005, the associated studio E Plus Studio that soon, in 2012, is transformed into a company of Engineering E Plus Studio S.r.l. becoming a point of reference in the landscape of architectural design and engineering.
The company is made up of 4 members, all engineers from the Faculty of Building Construction and Architectural Engineering at Pavia University.
Today, the organizational structure consists of an eclectic group of professionals and experts who boasts significant experience and knowledge in different fields of engineering, architecture and urban planning acquired at important research institutions and prestigious Architecture studies.
Thanks to this diversification of skills and specializations, E Plus Studio has undertaken its activities at national and international level, dealing design and planning and at different scales of intervention.
