Competition
Entry
The inclusion of the new Cantonal Museum of Natural History opens the doors of the compartment to the city and visitors, like pilgrims in the past. It creates new flows, crossings, places and urban facts, making the public visiting the historic center of Locarno experience new spaces, redefined through the geometry and operation of the new building, spaces that wind through old gardens and new courtyards that help to bind the subdivision and its buildings. The convent, gardens, orchard, entrance court, and new museum compose a single system. The goal of the project is to address the transformation of this place, which until now has remained inaccessible and private, by enhancing the lot’s character of privacy and letting the city discover the city a surprising space, rich in greenery and activated by culture and education. The volume of the new museum, attaches to the institute building near Via Santa Caterina and develops within the surrounding wall, occupying the entire available lot. In the area of dialogue between the monastery building and the new museum, a new courtyard , facing the institute and the city and in direct connection with the ortaglia. Through a grid, which in size, echoes the typical room of the monastery, the rooms and new functions are defined.
Year
2022
Location
Locarno, Switzerland
Project
SOLUM + Matteo Clerici
Collaborator
Gian Mario Vecchiato
Museographer
Massimo Curzi
Landscape
Laura Mantegazza
Images
Archealizar
Competition
Entry
The inclusion of the new Cantonal Museum of Natural History opens the doors of the compartment to the city and visitors, like pilgrims in the past. It creates new flows, crossings, places and urban facts, making the public visiting the historic center of Locarno experience new spaces, redefined through the geometry and operation of the new building, spaces that wind through old gardens and new courtyards that help to bind the subdivision and its buildings. The convent, gardens, orchard, entrance court, and new museum compose a single system. The goal of the project is to address the transformation of this place, which until now has remained inaccessible and private, by enhancing the lot’s character of privacy and letting the city discover the city a surprising space, rich in greenery and activated by culture and education. The volume of the new museum, attaches to the institute building near Via Santa Caterina and develops within the surrounding wall, occupying the entire available lot. In the area of dialogue between the monastery building and the new museum, a new courtyard , facing the institute and the city and in direct connection with the ortaglia. Through a grid, which in size, echoes the typical room of the monastery, the rooms and new functions are defined.
Year
2022
Location
Locarno, Switzerland
Project
SOLUM + Matteo Clerici
Collaborator
Gian Mario Vecchiato
Museographer
Massimo Curzi
Landscape
Laura Mantegazza
Images
Archealizar
SOLUM is an architecture office based in Milan established in 2019 by Mattia Agates, Lorenzo Campagna, Filippo Gismondi and Alessandro Loda after their graduation at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, (CH).
The studio works with a diversity of projects at various scales from urban planning to interior projects. It has participated in several national and international competitions, also in collaboration with other architects, winning some prizes and awards.
SOLUM is also involved in research and education activities as design teaching assistants at the Politecnico di Milano and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI.
Mattia Agates, Rome 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for Al-Jawad Pike Architects in London. In 2017, in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. In 2019 he founded SOLUM. From 2024 he’s teaching assistant at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI.
Lorenzo Campagna, Rome 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for Manuel Aires Mateus in Lisbon. In 2017 he worked for Itten Brechbuhl in Lugano and in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. From 2019 he’s teaching assistant at Politecnico di Milano and from 2024 at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI. In 2019 he founded SOLUM.
Filippo Gismondi, Milan 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for Manuel Aires Mateus in Lisbon. In 2017, in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. From 2019 he’s teaching assistant at Politecnico di Milano. In 2019 he founded SOLUM.
Alessandro Loda, Desenzano 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for HKS Architects in London. In 2017, in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. In 2019 he founded SOLUM.
Collaborators
Laura Acanfora, Alberto Allevi, Giovanni Battocletti, Silvia Beretta, Niccolò Calabrese de Feo, Giulia Grifoni, Gian Mario Vecchiato