DE GASPERI HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

NAPOLI, 2005

This site in Naples is characterized by a high residential density crammed onto a site surrounded by walls, with cul-de-sac streets. There are few connections to the adjacent neighbourhoods. The existing plan had one strong feature: there are several relatively small, pleasant and intimate enclosed open spaces. These spaces encourage communal activities: playgrounds for children, meeting spots for residents. (This is a quality obviously lacking in a lot of 60's housing developments, that suffer from the repetitiveness and scale of both buildings blocks and open space.)
Learning from what is good about the existing plan, in this project we sought communal intimacy. Buildings are grouped in pairs, each enclosing a court-like shared space. The pairs are placed so as to benefit maximally from the sites qualities. This leads to a multi directional setting that offers varying street scapes, public spaces, avoiding any repetition. Each home has a maximum view of the surroundings.