San Sicario Ski Resort
San Sicario | Italy
 
We were invited to this private design competition by ClubMed, the renown resorts company. The scope of the competition was to design a Ski Resort in San Sicario (Italy). Even though it was an unusual project for 100architects, we thought it would be a very interesting and a different exercise for our studio.
 

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Furthermore, we took this challenge from the perspective of our design philosophy, taking advantage of the terraces which would become amazing public areas and entertainment spaces immersed in nature.
 

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We drew conceptual inspiration from the surrounding nature, creating a façade system that is both functional and aesthetic. That will seek to mimic the natural transformation of the landscape occurring as altitude increases in the mountain.
 

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Thus, we identify the skirts of the mountain to be very rocky and solid, as a robust basement of the mount, and as we travel up on the mountain, we start discovering the forested areas, with tall & svelte trunks identified as natural brisolé nicely filtering the sunlight that reaches the inner ground of the forest.
 

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Finally, when surpassing the forest, we realize how fog gets stuck in between the Pinetops, almost like suspended white clouds that announce the clear skies above them.
 

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In the same way, we have tried to reflect that natural transition in the building envelope, in accordance with the interior functions of the buildings which are also organized in a vertical arrangement, stacked on top of each other.
 
Therefore, the first floors of the building in contact with the ground level where technical facilities, equipment and back of house are laid out, are solved with a continuous solid façade solution, mimicking the rocky skirts of the mountain, but choosing wood as the predominant material due to its warmth and coziness look & feel, very much related to rural architecture.
 

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Consequently, the immediate upper levels intended to host all the public facilities of the hotel are solved with a system of svelte lou-vers placed in front of glass surfaces, mimicking the pine trunks of the forest.
 

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While the full transparency of glass grants a very good nat-ural lighting in indoor public areas, the louvers filter that sunlight, adding a rhythmic exterior look of the envelope.
 

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Finally, the top bodies hosting the gues-trooms are solved with a special double skin based on very thin sticks laid out with differ-ent densities, playing with the opacity and transparency of the skin, mimicking the foggy feeling of being in between clouds. Creating a very permeable double skin at the terrace level allows us to provide certain level of privacy to the rooms’ terraces without sacrificing views and natural lighting.
 

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Once solved the vertical facades of the building, we didn’t want to forget its 5th facades, the rooftops & terraces. We believe these ones will have a huge impact on the guests’ perception of the hotel, since they are visible from the guestrooms. Therefore, we also classified rooftops & terraces into 3 different types according to the role they play within the building.
 

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Thus, we have the Rooftops, which are the last roofs of the 3 residential bodies, not vis-ible and therefore solved with gravel to keep it simple but elegant.
 

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Then we have the Green Terraces, which are laid out within residential levels and are visible from upper floors. Since creating a real green roof implies a lot of technical complexities, we thought it would be convenient to beautify normal roofs with huge flower pots, which not only solve the problem of humidity on roofs but also adds beauty and style to those roofs.
 

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And finally, we have the Public Terraces, which are basically outdoor extensions of the indoor public areas, where all the outdoor public activities of the hotel are hosted. These ones are solved as wooden decks, cozy transitable platforms filled with different activities and features encouraging social interactions.
 

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CREDITS:
 
Project Name: San Sicario Ski Resort Facade
Design: 100architects (Shanghai) in collaboration with Diego Fuertes Product Designer (Shanghai)
Design Team: Marcial Jesús, Javier González, Diego Fuertes, Lara Broglio, Mónica Páez, Gong Xun, Cosima Jiang, Inés Chicurel, Elisabet Wong.
Client: Club Med
Area: 9250 m2
Completion: October 2019
Location: San Sicario, Italy