Serafico Residential District

The new Via del Serafico residential district interprets the current environmental, social, and cultural sustainability needs through an integrated residential and service project.

Located in the area south of Rome, along Via Laurentina, and near EUR, the intervention area covers approximately 20,000 sqm. The organic relationship between architecture, natural environment, and functional flexibility – which also characterises the nearby historical complex of the Abbazia alle Tre Fontane – is realised in a super condominium immersed in the greenery of a neighbourhood park, with different levels of permeability.

Following the gentle topography of the land sloping towards the north, the layout of the building opens up like a sizeable U-shaped courtyard towards the olive grove that surrounds the Abbey, opening up to the panoramic perspective towards the center of Rome. A planimetric solution that offers many relationships between building volumes and public spaces, combining private gardens with equipped indoor and outdoor areas for collective use (planned for fitness, coworking, children’s play, and events).

Acting on two different levels, the system of vehicular and pedestrian flows maintains the most significant possible portion for open-air living. Car access is exclusive to the south, with a pair of entrances from Via del Serafico at the eastern and western edges of the lot. Both inbound and outbound, the perimeter driveways give ramped access to underground parking spaces. They are flush connected by two cross-passages with limited accessibility, which form a ring that can only be traveled by service and emergency vehicles.

Malleable and rational in their volumetric articulation, the buildings – eight in total, with maximum heights varying between five and six stories – are diversified into three types, each oriented differently to optimize the contribution of natural light and the view to and from the landscape.

Continuity in the design of the façades is achieved through large balconies running along all the perimeters (providing ample space added to the comfort of indoor living) and by the large full-height windows, rhythmic in geometry by slight variations from floor to floor. The external cladding consists of particular facetted ceramic elements that play with the variable reflections of the sun’s rays, making the design of the façades dynamic and iridescent, in harmony with the sky.