Casa CaosCalmo
A house by chance!
This could synthesize the path which a couple of travellers, coming from Germany to Trapani, undertook driven by curiosity to learn about the places described in a book they had read.
Equally incidental was the meeting with us architects. During a pleasant dinner they told us to be interested in acquiring an apartment in the historical centre of Trapani.
When they returned after several months to Trapani in order to see some houses for sale, they couldn’t resist the fascinating charm exerted by an old and run-down two-level apartment, a few steps distant from the port of Trapani and in front of the cupolas of San Pietro church. They decided to buy it knowing that it would require a strong “vision” from our side and much “confidence” from theirs.
To transform a dark old apartment, organized in small and sequentially arranged rooms, into a luminous place with extended spaces has required a great planning commitment which concentrated not only on the “form of things” but also on the study of the daylight and the search for the adequate materials and finishes. Starting from the idea to retrieve some of the antique decorated tiles in terrazzo style and to adapt them to the new configuration of the rooms, we proceeded to a formal search for the “essence of Sicilianity”, which emerges both from the exaltation of the materials used for the finishes and from the direct and diffuse sun light constantly carving the spaces.
On the entrance level of the house, walking through the domestic spaces connected by a “light corridor” which subtly enhances the light colour of the resin pavement and the granularity of the lime wall surfaces, one breathes a pleasant and harmonic sensation of slowness. On the contrary, on the upper level, the coexistence of elements with strong identity radiates vibrant energy.
A narrow and short passage connects the living zone with the entrance to a two-level space, where a birch veneered cube contains one of the bath rooms of the habitation. The last steps of the marble staircase merge with the birch cube leading to the top of it. This space opens up to a strong diffuse midday light which enhances the volumes and makes the polychrome cement tiles that cover the meditation area located on the level above the birch cube shine. From there a transparent glass passage, duplicating the narrow corridor below, brings to a room which frames the sight of the five cupolas of the church and forms the entrance to a private terrace with a view over the roofs of the historical centre of the city.
