The architect Gianluca Gelmini has worked with great commitment and perseverance to ensure that the old fortified tower in the small town of Villa d’Adda is restored and used again.
After ten years in Milan, he had had enough. Gianluca Gelmini left the noise and hustle and bustle of the big city behind and moved back north with his wife and four children to his home region near Bergamo. Here, in a mountain village, he has converted two houses opposite each other on the narrow village street – one to live in and one as a studio. He makes a satisfied impression: he feels nothing of the crisis, he says, his projects are small anyway and often require a lot of supervision because communities in the surrounding area are involved and many people have a say; they progress slowly and above all require patience.
The “Torre del Borgo” in Villa d’Adda near Bergamo is just such a project. The historic fortified tower is built on three sides on a hilltop above the River Adda, in the middle of the historic town center, and is the only remnant of a medieval fortress. Gelmini had already been fascinated by this tower during his studies. During his studies, Gelmini was already thinking about a suitable use for it, as the tower had been empty for years and had fallen into disrepair. However, it took another ten years before he was able to convince the local authority that they were letting a valuable historical monument fall into disrepair.
The relic has now been renovated in a first construction phase, and the next step is for the books and their readers to move in. With a new external staircase, the architect has managed to make good use of the tower’s small footprint. However, the term “staircase” is almost banal for this scuptural, copper-clad extension, as the flights take a different route on each floor. In principle, the renovation – apart from the new extension – cannot be seen from the outside. Everything new is on the inside and consists mainly of steel: ceilings, walkways, door and window frames; the panes sit on the inner edge of the wall so that the glass surfaces are shaded from a distance and appear dark, as if the windows were still open.
Read more in Baumeister 7/2015
