Two residential buildings in Lugano, unchanged since their original construction. Their layouts had grown out of step with how people live now — and with what the city's housing market has come to expect. The client's question was direct: how do these buildings earn their place in the city again? The answer is spatial. Internally, all partitions are removed and the apartments replanned around contemporary living: generous proportions, fewer interruptions, rooms that open into one another. The existing structure remains intact throughout. On the exterior, enlarged openings and galvanised steel cladding give the buildings a new presence without altering their footprint. The access corridors are enclosed with semi-transparent photovoltaic panels orientated south — a thermal buffer that moderates internal conditions and reduces overall energy demand considerably. The envelope intervention is conceived as an integrated energy strategy rather than a cosmetic upgrade. The re-cladding in galvanised steel is accompanied by a continuous layer of high-performance insulation, significantly reducing heat loss across the building fabric. Window and balcony openings are enlarged — bringing more daylight deeper into the plan — while the new glazing specification balances solar gain with thermal control. The enclosure of the access corridors with semi-transparent photovoltaic panels is the project's most consequential move in energy terms. Orientated south, the panels generate renewable electricity on-site while the corridor itself acts as a thermal buffer zone — an unconditioned but protected space that moderates the temperature differential between interior and exterior. The result is a measurable reduction in heating demand across all apartments. Taken together, the proposal targets compliance with Minergie standards — the benchmark for energy-efficient construction in Switzerland — with the ambition of achieving Minergie-P certification. The intervention positions the buildings not only as desirable places to live, but as assets whose running costs and carbon footprint reflect the expectations of contemporary investment.