The building plot is part of the industrial area along the canal leading from the railway station to the sea, and it is overlooked by a variety of businesses.
According to the general reconstruction plan, executed by the Stefano Boeri bureau, a park parallel to the canal and a series of high volumes along its embankment should appear here: now the territory near the water remains part of the industrial zone, but over time it should become a promenade open to everyone. However, this scenario is not final, therefore the Dzukki complex remains connected with the existing urban development, but also open to the planned embankment.
From the city side, it is adjoined by a covered parking lot with a green roof, which flows into a raised central courtyard facing the water and connected to the embankment by a ramp. Small shops open into this semi-public space, as well as atriums leading to the complex's vertical communication hubs.
The building consists of two residential blocks connected by a bridge-passage (where apartments are also located), and forms a closed composition around the courtyard. The different heights of the buildings determined the angle of incidence of the sun's rays and views of the city center.
In the cladding of the facades, the architect used terracotta panels in earthy, green and blue shades, forming a kind of mosaic on the surface. The texture of the material, according to the author, is reminiscent of the numerous Byzantine monuments of Ravenna. The multi-colored "camouflage", meanwhile, somewhat distorts the feeling of the true scale of the building, which is important when the object is perceived from the side of the city and the water, where it still stands alone, as a temporary reference point - as if in anticipation of the development of the surrounding area.
Among the "green" elements of the project are rows of balconies on the south side, which protect from the summer sun, letting in the lower rays of the winter sun into the interior. Multilayer cladding with a layer of plaster on a metal mesh provides significant thermal insulation, and most of the energy required for the building is produced by solar panels on the roofs of both buildings.
N. K.
