GEZA Architettura

The project involves the demolition of two extant buildings and the construction of two similar volumes in the same position, with totally new shape and structure. Moreover, they are mutually connected by a new extension. The new house is conceived as one building with no separation between the “extant” structures and the new ones. The longitudinal view illustrates the basic scheme of the operation: three floors are built on the site of the previous house, of which one is an underground patio. On the other hand, the extension has one floor “laid” on the ground. Therefore, the section has a 10 x 10 x 10 cubic metre volume and a far longer “tail” stretching among the trees.

What was previously a saddle roof is now a ventilated double-slab roof, and the volume of the first floor is emptied thanks to a large balcony with a cantilever roof, so that an outdoor room is created to enjoy the views over the opposite park.

The all-white house features large windows and internal and external sliding wooden shutters. The windows, along with the internal and external retractable screens, make an integrated system allowing different possible modulations of the indoor-outdoor relation. The compression caused by the quite narrow parcel is used and reproduced in elevation to create small different outdoor spaces.

On the other hand, the garage loses its volume to become an exposed concrete “sheet”, which folds to serve as a support, lamp, roof and wall.  

Another key theme is respecting the trees in the parcel, which are only “grazed” and “approached” by the house and its protruding elements, but not pulled down. This means that the existing environmental quality is preserved and emphasized by the new construction.