Roman Villa
Proposal for a Roman villa developed for the exhibition Re-constructivist Architecture.
A locus amoenus is a place where the human being finds the wild part of himself as an individual, he finds himself in an absolute private dimension, where he knows how to be free and emotional. It represents a vision that explains a clear need for relief from rigid social rules and an escape from the universally recognized and accepted conventions. Nowadays it’s difficult to talk about the locus amoenus; today the single individual has a new representation of himself which is fragmentary, dynamic, never totally complete in a single social environment. As a consequence, the locus amoenus is demystified, reinterpreted in new forms, and fragmented into many loci. It’s becoming one of the many environments that the different social representations of our “Id” has to face, wish or fear. The roman countryside, as locus amoenus, is the mental and natural environment of our project. Settled in the hilly landscape, the general layout of the house is divided in two parts, an internal one and an external one, with two very different characters. Its main internal space is identified by the most representative moment of domestic life, the kitchen; it’s a unique and contained space, occupying just a small percentage of the whole building. The space is a triangular niche between the roof’s inclination and two walls, with an opened side towards the landscape.
The generative fulcrum of the niche is the fireplace, which is not just an object in the room, but the origin point of the space itself. The triangular geometry creates two opposite perspectives and feelings. A spatial introjection towards a fulcrum and a pressure-like feeling towards the outside, emphasizing the coexistence of two contradictory characters in the same space. The bedroom represents an exception, it is the most intimate and private space of the project, hidden between the lowest peak of the roof and the highest point of the topography. It’s not visible from outside and is the most remote object in the whole structure. The absence of a direct and clear communication with the outside underlines the sense of isolation and protection of this room; the skylight is not an accessible courtyard, but rather a funnel that channels the light from the roof down to the room. The external part under the roof is an undefinable space, it’s an outside kitchen or living room, it’s a shelter, it’s a piazza, it’s a ruin, it’s a fragment, is the informal face of an house in the countryside.
The roof is the only element that gives a unifying character to the house. it’s a clear division, whose physical expression reaches an extreme level to the point where the passage from one side to the other is not possible. The only element connecting the two sides is the corridor. The structure in the same manner reacts differently according to the spaces it serves. Two T-form cables on top, together with the exterior ramp working as a cable as well, held the roof on one side, allowing unconstrained spaces under it. On the other side the freedom and the informality of the open space is expressed by an opportunistic and in the same time functional pillars-beams structure, that doesn’t want to create a clear hierarchy or an identifiable order. The house is intentionally not conventionally “comfortable”, its elements would make you feel constantly alert and aware; which is the most consistent way to experience nature.