A politically committed and militant project!

Without artifice, the project chooses to highlight natural resources, bio-sourced and local. The timber comes from the nearby spruce forests, sawn and cut by the students of the technical school of wood, implemented by a committed and local company. Almost anecdotal but voluntarist, the project located in the Bugey massif summons the Hauteville stone once used to build Lyon, in a raw and expressive implementation to sit down and take off the building.

In the DRC, the base as emanation of the rocky soil, expresses this minerality through the dialogue of a clear concrete and the Hauteville stone. The program, placed on this base, is all wood, local spruce when it is protected, douglas fir when it is exposed to the vertical and chestnut on the horizontal.

Technically, a wood pellet boiler supplies the building and a wood dryer. A technical gallery, backed by land, contains the electrical pathways, fluids and networks of dual flow ventilation – a pragmatic device that saves the project of any plenum.

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The plinth, windows and the two doorways with their large gates were reused. This conglomerate building served as a reference for the new building in terms of volume, structure, materials, and motifs. The result is a newly built, converted old barn for living in. The volume provided by the previous building posed a problem for residential use: with normal story heights, there would have been only two usable stories. The floor slab of the third story, on the other hand, would be positioned so that the transition from the outer wall to the roof would be around 1.50 above the finished floor – a window in the outer wall would be too low, and a skylight too high.

We responded to this initial situation with a split-level solution – which we also mirrored alternately for each unit, creating two different types of apartments. One is more extroverted, with an extra-high living hall facing the courtyard. The two extra-high living halls facing the courtyard also replicate the two gateways of the historic barn in terms of space and opening behavior. A somewhat more introverted type has its living hall facing the landscape and the kitchen facing the courtyard. On the west façade, we then finish off the building with a special type that responds to the site-specific and organizational location on the narrow side of the structure.

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The five facets are addressed as a gang of elevations. each has a character of its own but they share apparent similarities. A grid of black dots attempts to make sense of the concrete structures and defines the figure of the facades.

Reoccurring pairs of windows, yellow doors, green shutters and surfaces of glass brick correspond to intricate rooms, devise tense compositions and charismatic personas. the former warehouse is a house of many faces.

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The rehabilitation project involved transforming the workshop into a restaurant, taking advantage of its last commercial licence as a tavern. The existing upper floor was extended, creating a covered outdoor terrace area and a toilet and service area. The ground floor houses the kitchen and a lounge that opens directly onto the outside.

The large openings on the upper floor without casements frame fragments of the façades of the buildings surrounding the covered terrace.

Eulalia Gil was a warehouse of disparate objects. Remains of unclaimed family properties, discarded furniture, books in poor condition and many other objects. A space determined more by its content than by its function as a container. Unconsciously it was this condition that guided the renovation project: a space shaped this time by the collection of objects of its new inhabitant. Large format photographs, work tools, rescued and restored furniture, a kitchen from a recently closed restaurant, a bench from an abandoned church and plants of different types and sizes, among the many objects that make up his collection, generate different compositions, causing the space to operate as a large background.
In line with this idea, the interventions that do not directly affect the walls and deck are treated as objects that add to this collection. Specifically a staircase and a gate are developed to connect and isolate a small space of intimacy for the inhabitant. These elements contrast with the rest of the building due to their color, materiality and shape. 
Eulalia focuses on the content rather than the container, centering the experience on the different relationships that these objects establish with each other.

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• The “Welcome Court,” which is located at the front of the house and is +0.30 meters high, so this court acts as a shielded court that slightly hides the inner space (the living room) from the outside. and it also acts as an accessway to the kitchen due to the not-too-high ground level (0.30 meters).
• The “Inner Court,” has a counter and table around it because its ground-level height is 0.70 meters. That height is suitable for making a working table or counter, so functions around it like a dining and working area.
• The “Pool,” which is different from the other court because this court does not have any existing trees at the location, so it is not necessary to keep the land level for keeping any trees. The court is dug 1.10 m for a pool. And this pool also creates functions around it, like a relaxing area and a bath area.
• The “service court,” which is at the same level as the house (0.00), is used as a court that can be easily accessed from inside, so it acts as a service court for support utility and maid rooms around it.

In addition, all the courts not only create functions around them but also connect the surrounding area. So, the “outer spaces” are connected to a circular area around the “inner space.” The court and its surrounding space are dissolved by daylight and fresh air, which flows from one space to another. In the same way, the view of space is connected by material, which is the “concrete skin”.

“Concrete Skin” is used to link inside and outside space together due to duration and time reasons. Concrete is cast on top of the brick wall. The concrete skin is strong enough for weathering. So, the exterior and interior walls are all the same when time passes. It makes a connection between inside and outside spaces.

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‘Threshold and Treasure’ aims to pay tribute to the work of Mats Bergquist. It is precisely in the space of the threshold that the meaning of the entire project unfolds: thus, the entrance becomes both work of art and urban system. It is a matter of volume: one can caress its concave shape, can experience it, and can perceive its thickness from the seat created inside, as in a frame that reminds of Edward Hopper’s representations. And again, it is meant to be crossed in order to reach the first “secret” garden and enter in a whole different dimension, by leaving behind the chaos caused by the surrounding urban context: an essential, oneiric peace which has been sought for one purpose only, to host art.

The path is designed with the aim of gently leading the visitor inside the exhibition area from the furthest side: the place unveils itself gradually, following a closed sequence of crossings, one threshold at a time. At this point, the itinerary reaches the so-called ‘black threshold’, which is a place defined by a twentieth century addition consisting of a frame in reinforced concrete, whose presence is here underlined by an ‘absolute black’ coating. This expedient focuses on the visual perception of the viewer, making the eye attentive to the layers and, at the same time, appeasing it, thanks to a background suitable for experiencing art pieces in an inevitable dialogue with the existing building. Precisely by the visible original wall, the presence of a third threshold can be perceived: the memory of what used to be a typography and, before that, a barn, leads to the discovery of a whole different spatiality, which is authentic since it has been freed from the additions of time. Here, in the background, is located a discrete volume of visible reinforced concrete which encloses restrooms, and captures light thanks to the contrast with the wooden slab. The longitudinal development of the great hall entirely opens up revealing an additional threshold: a glass and steel cage which expands the space unveiling the internal court, almost as if it was a treasure. It reminds of a Japanese garden, scattered with sculptures by Mattia Bosco, and it provides a privileged viewpoint, and also a moment of rest.

By going back to the glass volume of the entrance, it is possible to distinguish the stair leading to the upper floor. This presence reveals a design operation that made possible the “detachment” of the Liberty building – which now hosts the artists’ temporary residence – from the Twentieth century addition. In that specific position the stair becomes a key element to the re-organization of the syntax of the multitude of stratifications, showing the passage of time. The separation of elements (the villa and the warehouse) is a necessary break: the unpolished façade conveys the power of this break, which is then mitigated by the connection provided by the new stair. The stair and the beam in reinforced concrete generate an additional mechanism, a three-dimensional threshold, the sixth one, which leads to another treasure, the garden. This green space proves to be a sort of “panopticon” from which, among trees, it is possible to lay eyes on a typical Venetian historic centre. This point of attraction consists of a questionably complex blending of styles and colours which, overall, determine a contemporary tapestry, a setting which is itself a work of spontaneous art, defined by the alternation of architectures without architects (as Bernard Rudofsky would say) which contributes to the memory and tradition of the place and, for this reason, should be interpreted with pride.

One more threshold needs to be crossed in order to enter the atelier: a large sliding door in natural steel reveals a further pivoting window which, finally, gives access to a pure space. The concrete volume, visible on the external side, is characterized on the inside by a continuous white surface which stands out on a wooden floor recovered from a kindergarten in Borneo, enriched by kids’ carvings which bring back to the domestic dimension of the entire building. The covering, with regards to geometry and materials, brings together the architectural elements of the rural Venetian tradition and the typical features found in industrial buildings. The volume hosts a place dedicated to the artists exhibiting in the permanent collection, a space that, per se, reflects the poetic of the curator, Elena dal Molin, a contemporary patron who finds in experience, in sharing and in aesthetic research the fundamentals of her own activity: the perfect client for an architect.

From here, once again, it is possible to capture the intention to perpetuate a constant connection with the landscape, thanks to the ten-meter-long opening, defined by sliding window frames. The art projects itself toward the outside. And it’s where time stops.

While tracing back the itinerary, the ‘panopticon’ captures the visitor and, through a 360° rotation, one can see the impressive artisanal gutter which collects water and drains it towards the garden. Once again, on the ground floor, one can rediscover the garden and its twisty path: also the exit is a discovery. At this point, there are some more details that can be perceived, such as the bench inviting the visitor to stay for a little longer and think about their experience, before meeting again the quintessential mechanism, ‘Threshold and Treasure’, and leaving that peculiar ancestral dimension, which has been staged by the project thanks to the cooperation of art, memory and place.

Through the threshold, a space unveils, where a multitude of forces, guided by imagination, emotions and freely experienced matter, concentrate in a fact of preserved culture which projects itself towards the only possible measure: the infinite.

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Blue House Study is the space that flows around Blue House. It has no boundaries, and its material is the human body, while its structure is composed of the things we believe in. There are no rehearsals, no predicted end. It strives to break free from the confines of established systems and expand into an intangible space. It explores the eternity of change, the infinite possibilities of improvisation, and the indefinable freedom within these states of movement. T

Through a series of events, those who come to the Blue House immerse themselves in the space with their bodily senses. Blue House and beyond; the body and within the body. They participate by being there. Experiences never end; they will take us to places we have never been. Blue House Study and Blue House form an indispensable rapport between emptiness and substance.

Text provided by the architect.