Private Residence

The restoration of the old building, in ruins, by keeping the volumes and the original uses is the “mission” of the project. The lot purchased by the Customer, on the hills facing the city of La Spezia, presented an ancient half-collapsed agricultural building which needed to be revitalized and used as a residence, although maintaining a part destined to storage. The external “box” has been respected in its original morphology; as a matter of fact, the original volume in stone has been restored with a conservative approach by obtaining a bathroom on the ground floor as well as a living room and a dining-kitchen area, while a single bedroom on the first floor. The exterior architectural choices are measured and respectful of traditional customs (in terms of materials, typology and morphology) required by the site. The first task was to remove. Removing the additions and annexes that over time have overlapped to the original structure, by modifying the initial design. The interior spaces have been reorganized according to a new hierarchy mainly set on spatial values already present in the planimetry of the building, but never exploited due to the discontinuous and fragmented use of the living spaces and of the warehouses. The color chosen for the exterior plaster and the use of the wood teak create a chromatic completeness with the stone walls of local stone that distinguish the various parts of the terraced terrain. The ground floor has been completely redesigned by obtaining large areas that offer a greater planimetric clarity and a compositional strength. The interior spaces expand outwardly through the various glass surfaces, by favouring the continuity between the sequence of the internal subdivisions and the outer surfaces characterized by the use of clear opaque resin. The openings located on the south side allow the low winter sun to enter even into the bottom of the house, by contributing to the warming of the same during the day.