In the heart of Intra, Verbania, just a few steps from the shores of Lake Maggiore, stands Palazzo Restellini, a refined residential development designed by the Milan-based studio Piuarch. This urban regeneration project transforms a former industrial site into a new living space, reconnecting architecture with the landscape and the community.
The four-story building houses 29 residential units, ranging in size from 52 a 135 mq to 135 square meters, distinguished by an architectural language that combines formal rigor with volumetric lightness. Its clean lines and the skillful interplay of solids and voids create a visual continuity that dissolves the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces.
A defining feature of the project is the system of large balconies, designed to enhance the dialogue with the surrounding landscape. These terraces, carefully proportioned in height and depth, create a suspended effect, further emphasized by self-supporting triangular parapets that ensure aesthetic continuity while maximizing natural light.
The material choices highlight the purity of the architectural design: the white plaster facades, with subtle texture variations, are warmed by wooden ceilings, creating a chromatic balance between sobriety and warmth.
The project goes beyond the residential dimension, integrating into a broader initiative to enhance the area. As a tribute to the site’s historical industrial vocation, part of the early 20th-century factory façade has been preserved and incorporated into the new complex. This element serves as a bridge between past and present, framing the gardens to the south of the building, which are also accessible to non-residents.
Palazzo Restellini thus represents a new paradigm of contemporary urban architecture, capable of generating value for the city through the recovery of its historical fabric and the introduction of a refined, essential architectural language open to dialogue with the landscape.
CREDITS
Project: Palazzo Restellini
Architect: PIUARCH
Location: Verbania, Italy
Photo: Marcello Mariana
