The aim of the new circulation system at the Castello di Rivoli and the redesign of the southeast flank of the adjoining hillside is to create a closer link between the city and the castle. Rivoli, a small town on the western edge of Turin, is dominated by this monumental eighteenth-century Juvarra building, which was never completed.
Following the philological restoration of the building after the tragic airplane accident in April 2002 the realization of a “piazza alta” at the 31st floor of the Palazzo configure the original vision of Giò Ponti of a public viewing platform, a piazza in the sky. It was his way of giving back to the city the ground space stolen by the skyscraper’s footprint.
The designed complex consists of five interrelated parts: conference area, catering and accommodation segment, Gallery of the Contemporary Art, Educational center and Center of the Serbian Army. The flexibility of the function is achieved through the generated functional connections between the parts which allow their separation or unification.
An embassy building today is no longer a historical model of “palace”, somewhat arrogant in its presence in the city. Its new role is one of a “sofisticated machine”, that – while representing its country, its political, economical and cultural values and ambitions, also tries to be respective to its surrounding and its host city.
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