House in Pianezzo
A slope cultivated with vines is oriented on south-west to the Magadino's Valley and is located at the entrance of the Val Morobbia. The steep terrain is enclosed in the lower part by a sustaining wall made of stones that runs along a main road.
The program for a single family house, which the clients asked to be divided into spaces dedicated to children and to parents, respectively, responds to a request with very dense and articulated spaces: a living room, a kitchen, a parents’ bedroom with wardrobe and private bathroom, an office, three other bedrooms, four bathrooms, a laundry room, two storage rooms, a wine cellar, a technical room, an outdoor swimming pool and as well a covered parking space.
The project responds to the complexity of this program with a simple and compact volume in which also the outdoor spaces are included. Thought as a rural building based on an economic use of the land principle, this squared volume emerges like a monolith placed in the lower part of the plot without changing the original topography in order to affirm the unitary character of the vineyard.
The monolithic and minimal expression of the building contrasts with the domestic character of the inner spaces which organization is thought to constantly rediscover the landscape.
The access is being addressed at the level of the main road with an arrival space defined by a sustaining wall which emerges by modifying the existing one. The proper entrance inside the house is reached through a gallery dug inside the ground. The building is organized on three levels: the lower basement with pedestrian and vehicular access; an intermediate level with the children's rooms and the upper level with living areas, parents room and the outdoor spaces. This top floor is organized around a courtyard bounded by two concrete walls that extend the living space outside, on one side towards the mountain, while on the opposite to the landscape of Magadino's Valley.
In order to establish sensitive relationships with the natural slope we had to inearth most part of the building. Consequently, to ensure the amount of natural light in all indoor spaces we had to adopt specific solutions.
The monolithic aspect of the edifice is accentuated by the poured reinforced concrete and by the facades with almost no reliefs and few openings. The light thus strikes the building in its entire dimension. A dimension which establishes a contact with the landscape at a grand scale.
Thus, the relationship of the building with the landscape is reconstituted.
