Riva Pharmacy

The Farmacia Riva project concerns the building renovation of a mixed-use commercial-residential building, located in a small mountain hamlet in the municipality of Belluno.
The existing building had an extremely modest construction quality, with the main front being the only element to have an architectural identity.
The objective of the intervention is to redevelop and upgrade the existing volume, according to the most up-to-date criteria of comfort, usability and safety, while maintaining the typological characteristics of the main façade almost unaltered, for which the forometries were rearranged and the balcony built later was demolished.
The rear part of the building was instead demolished and rebuilt with a volumetric enlargement, which respected the alignments of the existing main façades.
The shape of the roof, made of black sheet metal, was simplified with the insertion of two dormer windows, to recover a relationship with the surrounding mountains, in particular the view towards the south (Nevegal) and the view towards the north (Belluno, Monte Schiara, Monte Serva).

The openings in the secondary elevations have been relocated according to the new interior spaces, maintaining the arbitrary arrangement of the original building.
The external cladding of the façades is in light-coloured rough plaster, consistent with the context. A stone plinth has been inserted on the south and east fronts.
The window and doorframes were specifically designed for this intervention and made with structural glass on the external side, in order to increase the effect of clean cuts in the masonry.

The interior layout is focused on the centrality of the galenical laboratory, the true symbolic and operational heart of the building, which is in sight contact with the pharmacy's sales area, with the offices and with the attic's resting space, from which views of the mountains can be seen.
The sales areas on the ground floor have stone floors and wood-panelled walls, while for the office and laboratory areas the partitioning elements have high acoustic comfort and antibacterial properties.
The technological systems have been completely overhauled according to high quality standards. Part of this system is the warehouse for sorting pharmaceuticals, which is fully automated.