Cielo Alto residential complex

Cervinia – Valtournenche

Renato Piramide, Maria Coletti, Mario Megna, Francesco Dolza
1972 – 1978

The complex consists of a series of large exposed concrete buildings that seek dialogue with the morphology of the reliefs according to a metaphorical process between architecture and mountains typical, for example, of the romantic visions of Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc.

Born at the height of the ski total era, the intervention of Dolza, Piramide, Coletti and Megna on the outside tries to solve the problem of dimension through confrontation with the forms of the place, while on the inside, it proposes a totalising spatial and temporal organisation, as in a city in which everything is accessible and structured: housing, services, sports, leisure, social life.*

The complexes show the inclemency of the passage of time. In today’s society, profoundly changed from the one in which they arose, the social and class instance has given way to that of the individual and his illusory quest for exclusivity (albeit standard and conformist). Therefore, the ideology behind architectural interventions such as these shows cracks and is dated, decadent, and anachronistic.

*Web source: Research Center Institute of Mountain Architecture