Located in the easteren part of Sicily, within a lemon grove overlooking the Ionian sea on one side, and Etna volcano on the other one, House RP stands in a marvellous location named Reitana. This place is known for the dominance of signs that underline its originary rural vocation: the lavastone walls, the rural buildings scattered in the landscape, the terraces modeling the country profile. All elements that draw a unique mediterranean paysage. The design provides a family house integrated with a farm; the design itself takes shape form the variation of the theme of Masseria. The italian “Masseria” is a vernacular mediterranean architecture characterized by the centric planimetric layout settled all around a courtyard named “corte”. According with the brief we have designed a cluster system of buildings generated by the intersections of stuning views and their relations with the landscape. The outcome of this process is an amazing, yet natural, courtyard, core of the family’s life where the building acts as scenography for every day activities.
A project that was born from the desire of commissioning a recurrence and innovate so not usual, by way of \”experimenting\” with new forms of activity, and that turns into a new architectural expression. A project that engages in Etna area, a crossroads of flows and the heart of the historic center: the main hub of the Catania movida, but above all the history and culture of a dynamic city and always looking for new challenges.
It is a building in the Baroque center of Catania, redesigned as hotel which tells Sicily cinematographically. The original core, dating back to the ‘500, was rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake afterwards it was subjected to several changes, the last one date back to the post war period, has changed the intended use until the final one known as hotel. This has been possible to read through the works of restructuring that showed the various layers. The works have tried to bring back to life the original structure while maintaining or reviving the system of vertical connections. The concept wants to communicate an image of Sicily especially told through the suggestions from cinema. To make it possible, representative icons have been used and even decorative apparatus, the quotes, the lighting design, using a contemporary architectural language dedicating to each space a cinematographic work. The work has required a careful research of the significant elements of the “story” told, without neglecting to re-use some original elements of the building, reinventing use and function. Each room is characterized by objects, shapes and colors taken from the movie to which is dedicated in order to allow the customer to soak into the atmosphere that we want to tell. Particular attention was dedicated to the relationship between the plant system and the environments, aiming to its complete integration, reaching almost the invisibility. The charm of the interior benefits of the “popular” atmosphere that represents an extraordinary urban landscape. Eleven Rooms were obtained, some of which are configured as suites, dedicated to a particular director and a small Spa.
From 1 room of 48 sqm to 4 rooms of 16 sqm: increase of surfaces, multiplication of space. Two overturned and turned 90 ° turnstiles – in birch plywood panels – operate this magic, also providing the “disappearance” of the metal loft, heavy burden of the previous real estate RE-structuring, and returning “air” to the compartment. The space is so circular: from the living room, to the kitchen, to the study, to the upper bedroom: that from the living room, on the study, connected to the kitchen by a yellow monochrome staircase “dug out” in the birch portals; as well as the front desk counter.
Article source: NOWA s.r.l. – Navarra Office Walking Architecture
1.The reuse of two former artisan sheds is the opportunity to score an anonymous urban environment and degraded by the power and strength of the architecture. In this project we used crude materials to make the surfaces very expressive.
A building at the ground floor 5 meters wide and 20 long with generous walls of lava stone stands on a shaped core of lava, residue of buildings massive ’70s; only two openings diagonal, north-east towards the gardens of the district, south-west to a glimpse of the city. A prism wooden “hut ” is placed on the lava fragment of the house, rotated 6 degrees and cut on the volume below, carved by two terraces on the diagonal gashes: a gem set between the heroic rears of tall buildings.
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