Il Genovese Boccadasse


Renovation

Client: il Genovese
Location: Boccadasse, Genova
Year: 2020
Program: commercial, eatery, takeaway
With: Prof. Arch. Valter Scelsi
Photos: Anna Positano, Gaia Cambiaggi | Studio Campo
Publications: DOMUS #1054 | domusweb | designboom


 

A continuous brick-made piece of furniture is the most substantial presence inside the new eatery corner in the Boccadasse bay in Genoa: “il Genovese.

Conceived as a “Sciamadda,” the typical Genoese takeaway, this 6 meters long counter is entirely designed as the facade of a higher-scale building by proposing strict proportions and tectonic evidence of its relationship with the sloped ground.

A string course divides a jagged, brick-colored base from the vertical frame rhythmically divided by pilasters into a precise linear geometry that emphasizes the enveloping loop of the plan design.

 

 

The crowning of this “small-scaled-building” is the new horizon of the entire inner volume, a slate-black support plane with its food showcase, which presence becomes enforced just with the exposition of the Ligurian delicacies.

Three main details define the connection between linear sectors through rectangular and curved joints, as well as with the internal trilith of the entrance:

  • the convex squared corner that proposes a contrast between the 45°-laying of the untreated base brick and the heads-crossed of the higher green infill;
  • the concave connection with the gently curved deformation of the shape in the plan section;
  • the proximal transition of materials, from the counter to the entrance infill, where cuts and joints still highlight the precise distribution of geometries.

To complete this precise geometrical shape, the irregular solidity of the brick embellishes even further all the surfaces, animating them through dynamic shadow effects.

 

 

Realized in the heart of the ancient sea village, “il Genovese – Boccadasse” turns the typical elements of a “Sciamadda” into an exercise of transposition of the architectural composition of the building scale within a piece of site-specific furniture.

It rules the nave and divides the customers’ space into a fluid and circular path from entrance to entrance.