Parti/Concept
While learning about the history of Florence from our Italian professors and fellow students, one thing that initially struck me was the historic city walls. Originally surrounding the Roman city, over time new circles were added to incorporate more of the area around Florence. The walls were used to protect and guard the city, strong and intimidating structures masoned for decades. Communities not only thrived within the walls, but outside as well, later incorporated as the layers grew wider. I began thinking about this idea in relation to the concept of integration; how did the city walls go from separating to integrating diverse communities not always part of the city?
From there, my partner Stephen and I conceptualized "a historic core radiated out from" into the existing site of Piazza dei Ciompi. We noted the existing building as our "core", representing the history of the site and what was. We decided to reinvent the once thick and foreboding walls into more public and welcoming spaces, still creating separation between the different usages of the site. The site is then split into three parts; a back garden, the integration center/chapel, and the existing open piazza.
From there, my partner Stephen and I conceptualized "a historic core radiated out from" into the existing site of Piazza dei Ciompi. We noted the existing building as our "core", representing the history of the site and what was. We decided to reinvent the once thick and foreboding walls into more public and welcoming spaces, still creating separation between the different usages of the site. The site is then split into three parts; a back garden, the integration center/chapel, and the existing open piazza.
Garden
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/1/8/111859715/editor/screenshot-2023-02-02-at-11-18-01-pm.png?1675397939)
One thing that we noticed upon researching and diagramming was that there are few green spaces within the city of Florence; most of the public spaces are paved or stone, and there are few trees and vegetative elements within the city center. We decided to bring green space into the site to provide the community with a new typology within the existing footprint. We also noticed how the existing use of the site is more park like, so we wanted to continue providing this experience. The garden is shielded from the street by one of the walls. This wall becomes more welcoming and open because it works as a bench facing the garden, making gathering space out of the "poche". There are steps leading on top of the wall, both as an ode to the history of guards walking along the top of the historic city walls and to make the wall more interactive for the community. The wall plan follows the angles of the chapel wall in order to connect them across the site. Lastly, the trees are replicating the pattern of trees in front of the integration center (on the other side of the existing building) to connect the two sides across the site.
Integration Center
For the integration center, my partner and I began by discussing how we wanted the space to feel. We were intrigued by the palazzo typology so prevalent in Florence; a strong masonry exterior with a light and bright inner courtyard, representative of high status families wanting to present their strength and class outwardly. We wanted to invert this to instead make it both welcoming inside and out, so we focused on permeability. The glass facade also works to directly contrast the strong stone wall along the center. The permeable facade allows onlookers to see into the building and encourages people to utilize the space. Similar to the larger site concept, we wanted to have the building centered and informed by the courtyard, representative of history.
We also quickly established the structural grid based on the courtyard and decided to pursue an open plan to continue creating flexible and open spaces in the building. To give prominence to the courtyard, the circulation moves around it. The lobby space is double height and runs along the chapel wall to mirror the procession within the chapel. The courtyard separates the two sides of the building which house the main public areas- the polyfunction space, the cafe, the conference room, the office space and the reading room. The most southern row of the column grid, along the existing building, operates as the service section with spaces like the bathrooms, storage and mechanical.
Chapel and Piazza
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/1/8/111859715/editor/screenshot-2023-02-18-at-11-12-35-pm.png?1676779989)
This project also challenged us to look into urban design. We decided early on to keep the piazza space open because we noticed how the existing openness is crucial to the community, as they can use it for any purpose with ease. We added a few benches to provide seating, but kept them on as framing on the outside of the open space to keep the middle free. We decided to add large trees to provide shading on the site; these trees are distinctive from the ones in the garden to establish the two spaces as separate. The stone pattern is a combination of the axes of the existing loggia and the chapel in order to provide resolution with the different lines.
The chapel wall is in line with the Duomo, one of the most prominent architectural landmarks in Florence. The slants on the side of the chapel act to guide the procession into the chapel and along the shared chapel/integration center wall. The chapel faces and enters/exits onto the open piazza, so creating a facade that wasn't intimidating or intense was a challenge for my partner and I. We were inspired by the Italian history of gelosie, which were slanted panels intended to let nuns within convents to see outside but to keep outsides from seeing in. The panels alternate at each row to provide variety, and the panels provide visual intrigue and human scaled elements to keep the wall from being too intimidating. The panels also provide interesting shadows inside the chapel at specific times of day, working in tandem with the roof cutout along the edge where the chapel and integration center meet.
The chapel wall is in line with the Duomo, one of the most prominent architectural landmarks in Florence. The slants on the side of the chapel act to guide the procession into the chapel and along the shared chapel/integration center wall. The chapel faces and enters/exits onto the open piazza, so creating a facade that wasn't intimidating or intense was a challenge for my partner and I. We were inspired by the Italian history of gelosie, which were slanted panels intended to let nuns within convents to see outside but to keep outsides from seeing in. The panels alternate at each row to provide variety, and the panels provide visual intrigue and human scaled elements to keep the wall from being too intimidating. The panels also provide interesting shadows inside the chapel at specific times of day, working in tandem with the roof cutout along the edge where the chapel and integration center meet.
Overall, I felt that this project was very empowering and exciting! We had never done larger scale urban design, and this was also my first partner project in school, so this whole project was a large learning experience. This was also my last studio project in UMD undergrad, and it was really amazing to see how much I have progressed!