Casa Verri
In a small village in southern Italy, a modest house stood unused - two vaulted rooms with thick walls and a street-facing façade protected by local heritage rules. Natural light entered only from this southern front, which faced directly onto the street and the harsh summer sun. With no possibility for cross-ventilation and strict regulations prohibiting new openings, the interior was dark and uninhabitable. Rather than extending upward, the project begins by turning inward.
Thanks to a special permission from the urban planning office, one of the original vaults was dismantled and instead, a patio emerged: an open-air void defined by a curved wall, evoking the image of a rotated vault. The curved patio reaches outward to a broader architectural language, referencing the rounded forms of Puglia’s vernacular structures - torrette, trulli and dry-stone enclosures.
The patio serves as the home’s new center. It brings in air and filtered light, offers shade and coolness in the summer months and introduces an unexpected layer of privacy behind the protected façade. It is through this open void that the house is now entered. Behind it, two new storeys were added within the existing volume: living spaces on the ground floor, workspaces above.
Built with standard materials and modest means, Casa Verri proposes an alternative model of transformation: one where subtraction holds more potential than addition.
