IL PALAGIO
IL PALAGIO, Hotel and Conference Center
Florence, Italy
Il Palagio is a fifteenth century villa built in the “Casa da Signore” architectural style and it is located in the Chianti region, near the city of Florence. At present, it is primarily used as a warehouse and farm-related utility space with the cellar serving as an oil mill. The main part of the building is deteriorating and is in dire need of restoration. Because of historic and artistic importance, this villa deserves preservation. Additionally, its design and location render it an ideal candidate for renovation and re-use as a hotel and conference center.
The purpose of this project is to highlight the preservation challenge of respecting the existing site’s continuity to the past and preserving the different layers of architectonic history of a building without forcing it to suffer the shock of a new identity. This added layer, instead of forcing itself on the exterior, goes underground, taking advantage of the hilly natural setting where the building is located and has developed over the past six centuries -- each time trying to meet the needs of new owners, generations, purposes and styles. However reverent of the building’s heritage, the new project seeks to leave its own imprint and force of purpose. A glass and steel skylight structure, built into the new pavement of the building’s courtyard, works also as a conceptual fracturing element, creating an aperture between past and present.
The project proposes the conference center to be located on the cellar level. The main conference room, with seating for 180, will be located directly beneath the court yard. There will also be newly created small conference rooms, work and exposition/exhibit spaces utilizing the area presently occupying the oil-mill. The space below the garden, located on the northeast facade of the building, will house services related to the conference center: lobby, reception, bar, cloakroom, toilettes and storage rooms.
The hotel's lobby, reception, living rooms, bar, restaurant, kitchen and other service areas will occupy the ground floor. This level will feature the fifteenth century loggia of the villa with its ornately beautiful Michelozzo’s school columns serving as the lobby. Eleven bedrooms will be located on the entire northeast wing of the ground floor, with another eleven bedrooms on the top floor where the superior loggia is to be restored. The opposing wing of the top floor will house the grand banquet hall, including related services areas and offices.
The most striking and important architectural element of this project is the proposed internal facade of the loggia on the court yard. This includes both restoring the original superior loggia and enclosing the entire facade with an external glass structure. A large, amphitheater-style conference room is designed below the court yard, receiving sunlight through a glass and steel structure built into the new pavement of the court on the ground floor level above. A similar elemental structure is planned for the ceiling of the main entrance and reception areas of the conference level beneath the hanging garden on the Northeast facade of the Villa.