Type of project
Private Residence
Year
1997
Tag
Stairs Metal Restoration Stone Geometry White Arts Plaster Interior Iconic
Mentions
FIRST PRIZE – RIABITA 2000 CONTEST
RIABITA N.3/2001
URBAN INTERIORS 3
AREA N.37
LA CASA N.15 CASE D’AUTORE
ARIE ITALIANE
RESIDENCES N° 44
Photographers
Paola De Pietri
Status
Completed
Location
Siena, Italy
A work of contemporary architecture composed of paths, with areas of pause and restart, creating expectations and enabling choices. Thanks to viewpoints and counter-viewpoints, the project offers a perceptive continuum capable of connecting with the extraordinary collection of contemporary art.
The project is based on the desire to create a domestic urban microsystem with an internal square that becomes an extension of the external square, a place for functional and conceptual recovery. The square also performs its natural function, affording an opportunity for meetings, events, and exchanges in an essentially cultural atmosphere.
It is a suspended space, an interval between the public dimension and the more strictly private sphere.
The desire to salvage the tower hidden by previous building works over the centuries was the determining factor inside the square; a “liberation” of a volume rather than a surface or a monolithic sculpture. A true architectural feat, architecture in stone, a logo that both stands alone and is also part of the whole, that has the power to reestablish a perceptual relationship with the tower located outside the building on the other side of Piazza di Postierla. It is a presence that lies halfway between the military concept of warning and defence (in this thought experiment) and a kind of treasured and secluded “petite maison”, in which to spend your hours of leisure.
The pathways are laid out according to the rhythms and cadences of the urban ones, and like them, they are host to a range of functions and surprises.
This is how the ramp promenade is constructed, that leads into the living area and connects to the suspended walkway.
Acting as a counterpoint to the tower, the steel architecture of the kitchen creates a space that can be seen both as a distinct and autonomous place and a cog in the larger machinery of the house.
The search for a functional order, comparable to a kind of minimal subsistence represents a passage in the design scale from the very large of the whole to the very small of the specific.
