Vibrant Technik

Text description provided by the architects. A new urban masterplan in Ponzano Veneto in Italy’s north-eastern province of Treviso, abutting onto the centuries-old park of an 18th Century villa, has appropriately taken natural vegetation as its baseline. Vivo Residence, a group of four distinct apartment blocks of 12 units each, is part of this recently laid-out area.

The whole project and subsequent construction took some seven years to complete -from 2011 to 2018 – a timeframe that required the architects of Studio B+B Associati to take a long-term view to ensure that the architectural product would still be contemporary when finally delivered.

The challenge of “designing residences for tomorrow” was met by reproducing urban proportions on a smaller scale. The four apartment blocks have three above-grade levels. The distinctive geometry of the elegantly textured elevations combines with the alternating solids and voids created by terraces, loggias and porticoes.

The rhythmic sequence is the result of careful arrangements of Matt finish NW24 Greyed Cedar Trespa Meteon panels, lending the buildings the natural elegance that comes with high performance materials. Manufactured with 70% natural fibers, easy to install and maintain, these high-pressure laminate (HPL) panels are also very shock resistant. The wide range of patterns and finishes affords specifiers and architects enormous creative freedom.

Alternating Trespa panels with other façade materials like plaster, metal panels and glazing, creates a wealth of geometrical sequences. These have been further enhanced on the Vivo Residence with the addition of LED lighting set into the elevations like vertical slits, showing off the surface to great effect even at night.

Finally, in compliance with the Nearly Zero Energy goals of the European Directive scheduled to come into force on December 31, 2020 and requiring that all new constructions be practically energy self-sufficient, the Vivo Residence has insulating panels on the internal envelope, creating a “box-in-box” system.