"Casa Sud" Flat Renovation
The building named “South House” is located on Via Bellinzona in the Biasca SBB train station compartment. The area is included in the Federal Inventory of Swiss Settlements to be Protected of National Importance (ISOS No. 3762) and is also included in the SBB Inventory of Buildings and Installations to be Protected (ISBA, Sheet No. 60.2.0-0.38927). The “South House” building is an integral part of the railway station real estate and is one of the buildings most subject to the preservation restriction. The original building was the Biasca railway station and was one story high; in 1895, two new floors were built to house SBB employee housing. The building overlooks the station tracks and has a very impressive view of the Santa Petronilla waterfall.
The renovation project concerns the “second floor north” apartment, which has a floor plan characterized by a large central corridor (width 196 cm) that distrubutes 6 rooms with a total area of 151 square meters. The apartment faces three sides (north, east, west). The height of the rooms is particularly generous: 310 cm. The apartment was in a poor state of preservation but possessed quality elements such as the original painted wooden doors with fanlights, molded window covers and skirting boards (30 cm high), boiserie that grows from the plinth and frames the windows, antique cast-iron radiators with raised decorations. Prior to the renovation, the walls were stained, the original floors, covered with several layers of linoleu, squeaked a lot when walked on, the electrical system was out of order, the kitchen was dated, and a false ceiling had been built in the hallway that encroached on the fanlights of the doors. The apartment had only one bathroom.
The renovation project aims at preserving and enhancing the characteristic elements of the apartment by adding new spaces. It is proposed to clearly separate the living area (east side) from the sleeping area (west side). In the east area, the three existing rooms (kitchen, dining room and living room) are connected by mediating new 160 cm wide openings that create a spatial sequence with long passing views. The openings create a large unified space that makes the apartment more usable. The new openings feature a system of molded frames and fanlights that echo those of the original doors in a philological manner. The old kitchen was replaced with a new one with a central island. From a structural point of view, 63mm-thick Kerto Q panels were inserted in the kitchen and bathrooms to stiffen the floor slab, and where the new openings in the living area were made, four HEA 100 beams were coupled and embedded in the frames.
In the west area, the old bathroom located in the first room was demolished to create two in the next one. The windowed bathroom belongs to the master bedroom with which it is connected thanks to a new opening. The second bathroom accessed from the central hallway also receives natural light thanks to a transom window in hammered glass. The stained glass window was already present and has been restored and modified for reuse. Both bathrooms feature bichromatic flooring of 8-sided white tiles and small black squares. The master bedroom space is hierarchized by a series of closets that organize the space, creating a walk-in closet, a home office space, and the headboard of the bed.
Great attention was paid to the restoration and enhancement of the original valuable elements. Decorated cast-iron radiators were sandblasted and painted with metallic gray tint. All damaged or missing wooden elements (paneling, cornices, wainscoting) were repaired and added; the original solid beech wood parquet, previously hidden under two successive layers of linoleum, was restored and consolidated by means of wooden inserts and resin injections. Text description by the architects.
Source: www.enricosassi.ch
Photography by: Marco Cappelletti
Construction Contractor: Bosisio Sagl
Sanitary: Idrosolution Sagl
Electrician: Spinelli SA
Plasterer Works: CapColor Sagl
Painter works: CapColor Sagl
Radiator Restoration: SP Color Sa
Parquetry work: Pavidea Sagl
Tiler: Gehri SA
Carpenter: Falegnameria Lorenzo Bernasconi SA
Lighting Bodies: RL Europe AG
Carpentry and Sheet Metal Work: Laube SA
Cleaning company: Rec Suisse Sagl
