s i a  Architecture Award 2010

The city of Varese has greatly ignored the presence of the lake throughout its development. The desire on the part of the city to create new multipurpose sports venues for rowing, swimming, tennis, football and rugby has been the inspiration for the project. The project aims to increase the lake utilization, incorporating it with places that make the city center.

The designated project area is the portion of the lake closest to the city, located on the eastern tip in the Capolago area. The project draws in the territory a square with sides 500 meters long, surrounded to the north and east by a canal, to the south by a pier and to the west by an embankment.

Along the sides built by the canal runs the Lungolago, overlooked by the pavilions that house the covered sports areas and the spaces to support them. The portion of territory isolated from the canals becomes a large park for the city, a biotype consisting of water and sky grass, served and used thanks to the leisure activities on the banks.

The infrastructures that host the playing fields constitute the external embankment, exploit the present topography and are connected to each other by a covered walk, one meter above the lake mirror. The dimensions of each pavilion are determined by the needs of the sport they welcome.

The roof of the complex is integrated into the context, adding to the "pattern" of crops, woods and rows, that determined by the outdoor playgrounds and ramps covered with grass, which enables access to the covered pavilions and to the Lungolago promenade.

In addition to the sports pavilions, along the way is a bar, restaurant and the reception. The jetty determines a small marina and ends with a field for the polo canoe. The west bank leaves the possibility of setting up the canoe during the competitions that traditionally take place on Lake Varese.

The project, therefore, becomes an amphitheater from which it is possible to watch the competitions taking place in the water, bringing Varese, its inhabitants and visitors, closer to the lake, becoming a unique observation point of the spectacular pre-Alpine landscape, on which the Monte Rosa stands.