In Quartu Sant’Elena, at the city’s entrance, an old corner building transforms into a work of contemporary and captivating forms. Our architecture studio embraced the challenge of giving new life to this structure, dividing it into six apartments and an attic. In renewing this building, we maintained the existing construction framework, characterized by load-bearing walls of varying thicknesses. The size and position of the openings remained unchanged, yet its exterior now reflects the modern taste of its newfound identity. A porcelain cladding envelops the entire building, giving it an almost eternal sense typical of stone constructions.

At the same time, the aesthetic reasoning is joined by a functional trick: this stylistic choice indeed avoids the decay and continuous maintenance of the facade, ensuring the durability of the ensemble. The title of our project, “DOMINO”, is inspired by the vision of an architecture that is a game of perception and imagination. The vertically aligned openings of windows and French doors cut through the building like slices, creating a series of parallelepipeds that captivate attention and curiosity at first glance. These vertical sections characterize the building’s aesthetics: like the domino game, they stand side by side and reinforce each other through their rhythmic repetition where the solid and the void interact in balance.

The highlight of this architectural symphony is the pergolas, a precious element that significantly contributes to the facade design and ensures a shading system, a nod to Mediterranean history traditions, as well as a functional element that stands on the large terrace of the attic. In the evening, the building transforms and comes to life thanks to the facade’s lighting, giving its architecture yet another new identity.

The vertical lines, rhythmic and musical, created by the lights dancing along the building’s strips, make it an enchanting presence even during nighttime, a beacon of beauty that stands as a unique feature in the cityscape. In this project, we wanted to cultivate the blend of past and present, history and innovation, creating an architectural work that we believe will shine with eternal beauty. DOMINO is not just a building but a symbol of rebirth and transformation, a tribute to the renewal of the architectural experience and the power of human imagination.