Giovanni La Varra curriculum vitae

Giovanni La Varra curriculum vitae

Giovanni La Varra g.lavarra@barrecaelavarra.it 0039 338 7704867 Architect, Urban Planning Ph. D., expert in management of complex processes of urban transformation. During the last years, alongside the research activities carried out at Politecnico of Milan, he has acquired a significant experience in managing complex and integrated urban projects, working closely with the public administration (including those in Milan, Rome, Naples, Trieste, Cagliari, Ravenna, Marseille and Thessaloniki) and with national and international private entrepreneurs (including Siemens, Hines, Europrogetti Fondiaria Sai, RCS Mediagroup, Cariplo Foundation, Pirelli RE). In the management of these procedures of urban transformation, next to urban and territorial planning and architectural design, he was also responsible for the definitions of the rules of intervention for public and private investors. While defining urban intervention strategies he always cared about financial aspects and their economic feasibility, collaborating with experts in urban marketing, Fund Raising, Project Financing but also launching activities of participation and involvement of local interests. The professional activity has seen an initial period of partnership with Stefano Boeri and Gianandrea Barreca (from 1999 to 2007) in Boeri Studio. Since 2008, with Gianandrea Barreca, he has opened a new studio in Milan: Barreca & La Varra (www.barrecaelavarra.it) Since 2000 he is one of the founders and promoters of Multiplicity, a research agency on urban transformation. (www.multiplicity.it) With Multiplicity Giovanni La Varra was invited to Documenta 11 Kassel with the project Solid Sea in the 2002. He has published articles, essays and reviews on Casabella, Abitare, Domus and on different important online magazines. Since 2012 is the editor of a column on Abitare website (Italian Compilation). In 2012 he published Barreca & La Varra. Questioni di facciata - A Matter of Façade, Skira.

Barreca & La Varra main projects

rcs mediagroup building c milan 2003/2007 client: Iniziativa Immobiliare Due s.r.l. (Prelios S.p.A. - Morgan Stanley - RCS Mediagroup) built surface: 25.000 sqm; budget: 26.000.000 euro schematic design, definitive design and construction design, artistic direction: Boeri Studio (S.Boeri, G. Barreca, G. La Varra) project structure: Reico s.r.l. project facilities: SPIT Engineering s.r.l. RCS Mediagroup, a major Italian publishing house, has moved its offices to an area northeast of Milan, where some offices and printing facilities were already located. A call for tenders was issued that included the arranging of the area (90,000 sq. m), the restoration of an existing building and the construction of three new office buildings. Building C, the first to be made, is composed of a low structure of 5 floors above ground and by a tower with a height of 80 meters. The development plan of the building has an open courtyard, whose lower part is parallel to Via Rizzoli; at its head, the courtyard faces toward the river Lambro and rises to form a square tower visible from the nearby motorway. The entire building is coated evenly on all sides by a double glazing of glass panels backed by aluminium point supports. It is a large and statuesque building, simple in its geometric structure and changing colours depending on time of day, weather conditions and seasons. About 1,100 people live every day in the interior of the building, which is organized in modular offices and open-space environments characterized by flexible systems and light-weight and innovative partitions which are highly expressive of the corporate image.

rcs mediagroup building b5 milan 2008/2011 client: Iniziativa Immobiliare Due s.r.l. (Prelios S.p.A. - Morgan Stanley - RCS Mediagroup) built surface: 12.500 sqm; budget: 14.500.000 euro schematic and final design and artistic supervision of the works: Barreca & La Varra developer: Prelios S.p.A. executive architectural project: S.C.E. Project s.r.l. project facilities: Teknema Consulting s.r.l. security: Soluzioni Engineering s.r.l. VV.F. project: Studiogamma s.r.l. Building B5 is part of a sector under construction, destined to the headquarters of a major Italian publishing house, Rizzoli Corriere della Sera Mediagroup, which is relocating its offices in an area north-east of Milan. The building is 5 floors above ground, and its façade will have the primary purpose is to provide an element of continuity with the buildings in the sector. The entire building, including the ground floor part on the courtyard inner side, where the accesses are located, is covered with colourful silk-screened glass plates and with additional vertical glass cornices jutting out from the façade that form awnings in the form of fins. These elements, together with the vertical sheets of glass and the chromatic effects with which the building is sectioned and ordered, represent the matrix from which all the later ideas and design choices have been developed.

client: CONSEIL REGIONAL (Provence-Alpes-Cote d Azur), AREA PACA built surface: 8.000 sqm; budget: 44.430.000 euro competition for the new provence, alpes e cote d azur regional council headquarter (winner) - international design competition, 2004: Boeri Studio (S. Boeri, G. Barreca, G. La Varra) schematic design, final design, executive documents and works direction, 2006: Boeri Studio (S. Boeri, G. Barreca, G. La Varra) consultants: I. Di Pol, J. P. Manfredi, AR&C (structures and engineering), A. Goestchy (arrangement and set design), Katalyse (programme and spaceplanning), AR&C (structures and facilities) villa méditerranée centre international pour le dialogue et les échanges en méditerranée marseille 2004/2013 The winning project of the international competition for the VILLA in Marseilles calls for the construction of a new CASA DEL MEDITERRANEO on the wharf of the old port. The VILLA will be a multifunctional building of 7,000 square meters for hosting research and documentation projects on Mediterranean civilization, culture and commerce. It will contain a large conference hall, an exhibition facility and a media library. Reception services and lodging for researchers and artists complete the functional scheme. The C-plan building will also host the sea itself, insofar as the waters of the Gulf of Marseilles insinuate themselves between the two main levels the conference hall and the expo hall to create a sort of aqueous plaza that can accommodate fishing boats, sailboats, installations and performances while not serving simply as a pool.

bosco verticale milan 2006/ongoing client: Hines Italia sgr built surface: 40.000 sqm surface: 62.700.000 euro schematic design, definitive design, construction design supervision and artistic direction: Boeri studio (S. Boeri, G. Barreca, G. La Varra) executive project: Tekne S.p.A. green executive project: E. Borio, L. Gatti project facilities: Holson Moran Italia S.p.A. 1. is a project for metropolitan reforestation 2. is a model of urban densification 3. is an anti-sprawl device that contributes to the control and reduction of urban expansion 4. can aid in the reduction of urban traffic congestion 5. generates a microclimate and filters small dust particles 6. is a system that optimizes, recuperates and produces energy 7. is a system that increases biodiversity 8. is a changing landmark 9. is an urban sensor for spontaneous vegetable and animal re-colonization 10. is a system that increases urban ecological culture

polyclinic hospital milan 2007/ongoing client: Fondazione IRCCS Maggiore Policlinico area: 80.000 sqm Cà Granda Ospedale built surface: 70.000 sqm; budget: 171.000.000 euro international competition, 2007 - winner: Boeri Studio (S.Boeri, G.Barreca, G. La Varra) in ATI with Techint S.p.A., ABD Architetti, B.T.C. s.r.l., C+S associati, Labics, Land s.r.l., TRT Trasporti e Territorio s.r.l. schematic design, definitive design and artistic direction: Barreca & La Varra, Stefano Boeri Architetti Over the years, the Ca Granda has built in that portion of the city between Via Sforza and the Rotonda della Besana. The construction of a fragment of the Sforzinda del Filarete, in the mid-fifteenth century, started a process of urban development which saw the growth, on a relatively small portion of land, of a large number of exceptional buildings often characterized by strong symbolic and monumental features. In addition to the Ca Granda and the Rotonda della Besana, the presence of works such as the Palace of Justice, the church complex of St. Barnabas, the Humanitarian school, the medical complex in Via Pace, and the barracks in Via Lamarmora, represent a unique collection of out of scale elements. In this scene, the fence of the Ospedale Maggiore as a whole constitutes another important complex and out of scale building. But, unlike the others, it is less introvert. The proposed project seeks to link the two main morphological features in the area: the open and permeable common spaces of the pavilion city and the introvert and free standing nature of the city of large objects outside the fence.

via d acqua milan 2012 for EXPO 2015 client: MM Metropolitana Milanese masterplan: Barreca & La Varra The Via d Acqua, a pedestrian path and a water channel of over twenty kilometers, will be one of the infrastructure built outside the fence of the Expo 2015 in Milan, on the occasion of the great international event. The path will take place from the dock at the intersection of Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese and will arrive to the Expo area after crossing the city first in radial direction - along the river of Naviglio Grande - then veering to the north in the direction tangent to the urban core. In this second section the Via d Acqua will cross the waterway system of urban parks in the west of the city (Parco delle Cave, Parco di Trenno Park, Bosco in Città). The articulation between the radial path and the tangent path is a remarkable point and it is characterized by a first important design intervention.

italian living culture ulaanbaatar 2012 client: Termigas S.p.A. and Ferretti International masterplan: Barreca & La Varra The Italian living culture is masterplan marked by two fundamental elements. The first one is a strong integration with the landscape that respects the main characteristic of the place favouring the geometry of the ground and using the existing access system. The second is given by the variable density which sees, more in direct contact with the road that connects Ulaanbaatar with the airport, denser parts of a new construction and the remaining urban development characterized by gradually reducing density to areas intended for residence of the upper level. The idea of a new settlement is characterized in fact by the integration between three different landscapes. First, the denser part of the compact city, an area intensively lived and designed to house services, residence and public spaces. It is located on the west edge of the area and along the infrastructure. The compact city represents the main access and it becomes the element of orientation and attraction of the area. Secondly, the less dense part designed to accommodate villas of different size, each featuring a private open space equipped with services and facilities. Located on the feet and the slopes of the hills in dominant position, villas become and represent significant points of the extent territory. The third is represented by the garden city that is constituted by villas of different size, organized in a flexible orthogonal grid.

client: Fondazione CERBA, Milano area: 62 ha, which 32 ha of public park built surface: 310.000 sqm (which: hospitals 180.000 sqm, didactic spaces 18.000 sqm, research space 65.000 sqm, residences 40.000 sqm, commercial spaces 7.000 sqm) operational coordination: Europrogetti s.r.l. feasibility study, architectural and urban project 2005/2008: Boeri studio (S. Boeri, G. Barreca, G. La Varra) integrated programme of intervention, 2010: Barreca & La Varra consultants: Land s.r.l., Pirelli RE S.p.A. Facility Management, Tekser s.r.l., TRT Trasporti e Territorio s.r.l. cerba european centre of advanced biomedical research milan 2005/ongoing This project, in addition to being a first idea about the most appropriate design to offer Genoa a new place of excellence for sports and culture, aims at developing a debate for deeper discussion on the future development scenarios for Genoa. Moreover, it is a project that is progressing in stages: once identified the possible areas for intervention, an assessment is made on them in terms of urbanistic, architectural, financial, political and administrative feasibility. CERBA, promoted by Professor Veronesi as an extension of the IEO complex in Via Ripamonti, is a veritable city of medicine which in the next few years will become a confluence of clinics, research centers for molecular medicine, hospitality facilities and university institutes. The project is organized around a large green area (more than 31 hectares) within the South Milan Agricultural Park.

Giovanni La Varra main publications

Italian Compilation. The 70 s by ABITARE online Italian Compilation is a review promoted by Giovanni La Varra on the website of magazine ABITARE. The review brings together texts and photographic surveys related to the Italian architecture of the seventies. These projects are observed today considering the radical transformation of the territory.

Milano cronache dell abitare Milano. Cronache dell abitare is a collection of texts, stories, surveys and photographic campaigns of the state of living in Milan developed during 2006-2007. The text, sponsored by Unicredit Foundation, collects some study cases that make up an atlas of way of living in a city like Milan that is going to have a deep transformation.

A Matter of Façade Barreca & La Varra A Matter of Façade is a review of architectural works designed and built by Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra from 1999 to 2012. The façade is observed because of its ambiguous condition of being part of the architectural structure and part of the city at the same time. It has always a public nature; its vocation is necessarily collective. The façade is a clue regarding the nature of a building. This thin membrane ends up representing a host of issues in the project: technical and symbolic, materials and design, criteria and actual performance, procedures and contingencies. No other part of the building is subject to this ambiguous condition of being part of the architectural structure and part of the city at the same time. The façade will always have a public nature; its vocation is necessarily collective.

Mutations by Actar Giovanni La Varra is one of the curators of the chapter USE, Uncertain States of Europe and he contributed to the research also with the essay Post It City, about the informal transformation of public space inside European cities.

Post-it city Occasional urbanities After the essay published in Mutations, Giovanni La Varra become curator of an exhibition sponsored by the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona which includes over 70 cases of informal public spaces, collected through an international call. The exhibition, after Barcelona (2008), was exposed in São Paulo do Brasil (2010), Buenos Aires (2010), Santiago de Chile (2011), Lille (2011), Madrid (2012) and Malaga (2013).

studio di architettura viale coni zugna, 4 20144 milano, italy t +39 02 48029050 f +39 02 49634083 studio@barrecaelavarra.it www.barrecaelavarra.it