Second skin

Location: Rome
Area: 425 Smq
Client: Asset Management Company
Project time: 2020

Can the design of an emergency staircase become a pretext for creating architecture? Yes—if the staircase is intended to serve a building designed by architect Attilio Lapadula, and again yes if the urban context in which it will rise is as historically charged as the EUR district in Rome. The urban fabric surrounding the building is of outstanding quality, enabling us to undertake in-depth historical studies of the area and thereby design with intelligence and meticulous care.
The building comprises seven above-ground storeys, including the roof level, and a basement intended for parking. Its floor plan unfolds in an “S” shape between a landscaped area facing A. Libera’s Palazzo dei Congressi and the open-air car park of Piazzale dell’Industria, near which the intervention will be located.
The emergency staircase is intended to ensure the safe evacuation of the building’s occupants. It has a rectangular footprint measuring 6.90 × 7.50 metres and will be built around a central steel structure, with steel steps and landings spiralling up to the sixth floor.
On the side of the staircase facing the building façade, up to a distance of 2.50 metres from it, fire regulations require the installation of a REI-rated fireproof wall, designed to prevent flames or glass shards from reaching people during evacuation.
This requirement marks the starting point of our intervention, developed in agreement with the Capitoline Superintendency responsible for protecting the building: the need to design a “second skin” capable of visually screening the required REI fire wall.

As is standard procedure in such cases, the project began with a detailed study of the building’s façade, which had undergone a significant “interpretative” restoration in 2008. During that intervention, the original light-grey anodised aluminium window frames were replaced with new anthracite-grey frames, accentuating the vertical rhythm of the façade and allowing the Roman white travertine slabs—alternating along all elevations—to stand out more distinctly.

The resulting strong two-tone contrast required us to decide on the colour of the second skin: should we use Roman white travertine to relate directly to the travertine slabs spanning the second to sixth floors, or opt for a smooth-finished volcanic basalt cladding capable of establishing chromatic continuity both with the upper volume (2nd–6th floors) and with the ground and first floors, which feature predominantly darkened glazed surfaces?

Beyond the required safety distance from the façade, we chose a specialised metal mesh for the cladding, creating a homogeneous surface that allows glimpses of the staircase behind it while ensuring proper ventilation of the enclosed spaces. After sunset, the glazed elements are illuminated from within, filtering the interior lights with an amber tone—the same colour used to paint the internal walls of the staircase shaft, maintaining chromatic coherence even at night.