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Our proposal for the regeneration of the Ex Arsenale in Pavia reimagines a vast, 140,000 sqm decommissioned military site as a vibrant hub for state administrations, cultural activity, and public life.
Situated along the Ticino River and in close proximity to both the railway and Pavia’s historic city center, the site offers a unique opportunity to reconnect urban and natural landscapes through a strategic, integrated design approach. This reconnection unfolds through the adaptive reuse of existing structures alongside the insertion of new sustainable buildings, including a pair of archive facilities and a flexible civic pavilion. At the core of the intervention, the reopening of the Navigliaccio canal acts as both an ecological corridor and a connective spine, weaving together the site’s various components. The canal flows into a newly defined water plaza, which emerges as the symbolic and spatial heart of the district.
A green axis linking Parco del Ticino with the areas near Via Moruzzi serves as a structural and ecological backbone, improving permeability, wayfinding, and integration with adjacent urban developments such as the MIC Archival Hub and Caserma Rossani.
Public access and sustainable mobility are greatly prioritised. Vehicular circulation is limited to two peripheral loops, preserving a central zone dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists. A network of open and semi-public spaces -plazas, courtyards, and green voids- is designed to foster social interaction, support administrative transparency, and strengthen the connection between built form and natural context.
The new archive buildings are designed to blend with the sloping terrain and restored waterways. Their modular laminated timber structure, combined with a translucent Kalwall envelope, ensures both environmental performance and architectural clarity. The design emphasises flexibility, accessibility, and long-term adaptability, allowing the spaces to evolve with future civic needs.
A light construction system is used throughout, supporting speed, sustainability and, ease of both assembly and disassembly. The architectural language balances contemporary sensibility with contextual sensitivity, respecting the site’s historical layers while embracing innovation in landscape, mobility and material use.
By integrating infrastructure, architecture, and ecology, the project aims to transform the Ex Arsenale into a forward-looking, accessible, and environmentally resilient civic campus. So, it becomes both an anchor of regional development and a renewed interface between city and river.
