The house is located in an earthquake zone and fire danger zone, and there are limited materials to build with other than reinforced concrete using local limestone aggregate (making formwork is a key local skill). There are simple rooms contained within the main volume, made entirely from concrete (walls, floors, ceilings, kitchen, some furniture) and on top, a large shaded living space under a corrugated roof supported on red oxide reinforcement bar trusses, again, drawing on the skills and materials available locally.

There is no glass involved in the creation of the house, only galvanised weldmesh sliding screens, separate sliding insect screens and plastic curtains. Materials were often selected by what was available from the hardware store in the village. There are no designer inflections that suggest this is (capital A) architecture. There is no gate, no fence and no taming of the landscape around it.

Text provided by the architects.

A round kitchen island forms an amalgamation of a worktop and a dining table, inviting social cooking and gatherings. The neat storage block contains the kitchen pantry, cloak, wardrobes and utilities. The cross, a corridor partition made
of two large pivot panels and two pivot doors rotating around one centre, brings flexibility to the adjacent rooms. It forms divisions between private and public areas and is a mechanism which unifies or separates the different compartments of the house, depending on the family’s needs.

During the construction stage, hidden layers were revealed and celebrated, in a process akin to archaeology. Concrete ceiling waffles have been carefully exposed and restored in all rooms. The existing marble floor was removed to be repurposed as terrazzo aggregate. The marble pattern within the terrazzo floor was not arbitrarily placed: together with the clients we broke the salvaged terrazzo panels in-situ, in selected locations, retaining the fragments as they fell – freezing the moment of stone breaking into pieces.
The cementitious mortar found behind the existing tiled walls in the bathrooms was retained as the final wall finish. Neutral colours as well as all finishes on floors, walls and ceilings, were chosen to soften the hard nature of the building fabric.

Text provided by the architect.

The room keeps the imprint of a pre-existing stable and its relationship with the landscape. It is organised proposing solutions for the basic needs for a simple living in the countryside for a family during its holidays with the use of specific architectural devices: A raised bed-storage, a marble sink-window, a hearth-kitchen counter and an extendible bathroom.

The new volume acts as a pause in the continuity of the terraces, defining two new outdoor spaces with different spatial qualities, relationships with the landscape, orientations and shading from the surrounding oaks. Its expression follows the local architectural language as a basis, enriching it with contemporary elements.

The final result is a product of on-site collaborative conception of the architects with the local craftsmen. Local material, construction practices and the utilisation of “spolia” is used. The remnants of one construction phase are incorporated and become design solutions for the next. Common solutions that characterise the local construction culture become carriers of assimilation of materials, ideas and solutions that come from further afield.

To ensure consistency, a charter was developed during the whole process of construction, defining the basic ethical framework for the various choices during the works. It consisted of a series of simple design rules allowing for details to develop on site, as a result of the joint intelligence of architect and craftsman, establishing the character of the project and the role of the architect-builder during the on-site development of the project.

Text provided by the architect.