Monteluce Quarter, Perugia Shopping Complex, Northern Italian Architecture, Architect, Images

Monteluce Quarter

Retail Development, Italy – design by BOLLES+WILSON Architects, Germany

10 Apr 2015

Monteluce Quarter in Perugia

Design: BOLLES+WILSON

Location: Perugia, Italy

Opening of Monteluce Quarter, Perugia (I)

Is taking Piazzas to Perugia like taking Coals to Newcastle or Owls to Athens?

On the 19th of March 2015, in warm spring sunshine, Catiusca Marini – the President of the Region of Umbria – opened the first stage (first Piazza) of Perugia’s New Monteluce precinct (Nuova Monteluce).

In a forceful speech she described the BOLLES+WILSON design as an investment in the culture of the city, also in the public patrimony of Perugia, an exemplary work and a graceful urban transformation, one that experiments with a new contemporary urban architecture.

As the result of a 2006 international competition, the BOLLES+WILSON Masterplan unfolds from the entrance arch of the 12th century convent: Leading from Via Maria Alinda Bonacci Brunamonti (which in turn leads back to the nearby historic city centre) into the new Piazza Cecilia Coppoli (1426-1500, poetess and humanist). This First Piazza is flanked by two BOLLES+WILSON buildings – an office/shop edge and a pavilion that cantilevers at opposing ends, shading a café terrace and also stretching out into the adjacent valley towards the panoramic skyline of hilltop Perugia.

The spatial trope adopted here is typical for Perugia, a Piazza with one side open for views and cooling winds. Views are spectacular, across a luxurious Umbrian landscape, as far as Assisi. The Masterplan’s new Piazzas are placed on the crest of a ridge, with two levels of parking below the carpet-like Piazza paving.

For the opening ceremony this piazza was invaded for the first time by Perugian crowds. After President Marini they and the assembled paparazzi heard a speech by his Magnificence the Rector of the University of Perugia, Franco Moriconi, who welcomed the 150 new student rooms in the Second Piazza (still under construction). Also on the podium were the architect Peter Wilson, a youthful mayor Andrea Romizi, the priest of Santa Maria della Misericordia and Walter Orlandi, Director General of the Perugian Hospital (Direttore Generale dell’Azienda Ospedaliera di Perugia), that in 2008 moved from the Monteluce site to Sant’Andrea delle Fratte and thus made way for a redevelopment of the hill top site.

Apart from the church and convent the Masterplan retains and re-integrates one 19th Century neoclassical hospital pavilion (Clinica chirurgica). By placing new structures where hospital pavilions had been removed it was possible to also retain many mature trees and existing stone retaining walls. For both the First and The Second Piazza cars disappear underground (500 parking spaces). An existing hospital road circumventing the central zone will serve future residential buildings designed by young Italian offices. A new hotel will adjoin the convent building and an existing circular chapel will be integrated in the new Porta Sole Clinic.

In total the initial Monteluce buildings house 3,500 sqm office (the majority for the commune of Perugia), 950 sqm retail space (including a level -1 supermarket accessed from the carpark or the flanking street), below ground parking for 500 cars, student housing with 150 rooms, student club facilities and a Kindergarten opening onto a playground shaded by luxurious existing trees. These BOLLES+WILSON buildings constitute the core of the new urban precinct, an extension of the densely packed historic building fabric of Perugia.

Chronology:

2006
International Competition, BOLLES+WILSON 1st prize
(participants included Italo Rota, Abalos & Herreros, MVRDV, Lacaton & Vassal)

2007
Masterplan awarded ‘Premio Urbanistica’ (category Quality of Public Spaces),
Italian National Institute of Urban Planning

Dec 2008
Approval of B+W Piano Attuativo

March 2009
Demolition of hospital buildings to make way for new piazzas

June 2012
Foundation stone

March 2013
Opening of the Corte delle Clarisse

March 2015
Public opening of first buildings and the Piazza Cecilia Coppoli

Monteluce Quarter in Perugia information / images received from BOLLES+WILSON

Location: Perugia, Italy, southern Europe

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