DAP Studio's Elena Sacco on Urban Regeneration and Library Design

Elena Sacco, co-founder of DAP Studio with Paolo Danelli, discusses the firm's ongoing urban regeneration projects in an interview. In Savona, DAP Studio is designing the interior spaces and visual identity for the cultural hub and library at Palazzo della Rovere, a project funded partly by PNRR funds with a 2026 deadline. The work involves close collaboration with library design expert Antonella Agnoli. The project will open a courtyard connecting the historic center to the sea, creating a public passage. In Varese, DAP Studio is working on the second lot of a cultural center in a former barracks, including restoration and a contemporary expansion volume that serves as a new entrance and "contemporary heart." In Milan's Lambrate district, the studio recently completed M6, the adaptive reuse of a small three-story laboratory. Other notable library projects include the Biblioteca di Mezzolombardo, a finalist for the Premio Rigenera, and Piano B in Reggio Emilia, housed in a former winery. Sacco emphasizes the importance of designing libraries as open, welcoming public squares, using contemporary architectural interventions to signal new functions within historic structures. The studio is also working on urban strategy projects in Pero and Parabiago, and a new office building near Bergamo. Sacco envisions a future of flexible projects that respond to social change and contribute to more open, livable cities.