An orange house for work

In this paper, I reflect on my approach to adaptive reuse in architecture, shaped by professional experience in Southern Italy, where limited budgets often make it necessary to preserve and transform existing structures. For me, reusing buildings is not only a practical constraint but also a creative opportunity: I seek to harmonize preexisting elements and grant even abandoned or modest structures new formal and functional life, suspending value judgments about their original condition. My design method is grounded in signic stratification, a geometric and formalist strategy in which layers of architectural “signs” are composed to generate new spatial meanings. By balancing the dynamic, materially focused aspects of design with the combinatory and syntactic concerns of composition, I navigate between elevation, section, and the orthogonal triad, privileging none but employing all to shape imaginative interventions. This Euclidean and constructivist-inspired approach allows me to refine line, eurhythmy, and chiaroscuro, transforming abstract two-dimensional studies into meaningful three-dimensional space. I illustrate this methodology through the renovation of the Orange Building in Naples, where I converted an old dairy into corporate headquarters. I preserved the existing masonry while layering new elements – an orange exterior coating, metallic inserts, projections, terraces, and interior reconfigurations – each chosen to enhance usability, environmental comfort, and formal dialogue with the surrounding context. Every design decision reflects my effort to recombine existing traces and create a harmonious balance between morphological integrity, client needs, and imaginative renewal. Through these experiences, I argue that adaptive reuse, approached as a layered and formalist process, makes it possible to transform the ordinary city, generating environmental, functional, and aesthetic value while revealing the endless possibilities of architectural metamorphosis.