Residential
Eolian House
Filicudi, 2023
The residential project for Ca' Paradisola was conceived and designed in full respects to the island’s intensely connotated nature as well as the site’s specific location, a position that one cannot otherwise define as anything but acropolic. As such, the architectural intervention was not guided by residential needs but by the choices of living in a place of such essential solemnity.
UNA’s intervention unfolds through the incorporation of a number of pre-existences whilst drawing from a repertoire of typological solutions identified in ruins scattered throughout the Aeolian Islands. The house is articulated in two building volumes separated from each other by a small internal road that at its top frames a portion of the sky. The two volumes-one dedicated to the more purely domestic functions of living and one occupied entirely by a single room from which the other Aeolian islands and Sicily can be contemplated-present minimalist monochrome interiors. The rooms are characterized by smooth reflective surfaces in fine lime and the presence of alcoves that incorporate indirect lights and offer minimal cabinetry. The central sector of the volume dedicated to living is traversed by a double pass-through room that contains a green Officine Gullo professional kitchen. A green similar to the sage-green that connotes the house's windows and doors.
Isolated at the ultimate apex of the mount, the room is bordered on the inside by a masonry sofa where an unexpected "cushion" of split-cut travertine stands out among the soft linen cushions, forming the base of a fireplace that celebrates the presence of fire in this house. To allow the eye to slip out into the immensity of nature all the sharp edges of this room are rounded, inducing the effect of a "liquid" space.
This house's desire to be within and part of nature itself translates into the desire to make the boundaries between interior and exterior blurred not only through curved surfaces, but also by ensuring a continuity of the walking surface, which-without thresholds or changes in elevation-evenly extends into all interior rooms and into the three terraces overlooking the sea.
In these terraces, two elements conceptually reunite the "Sicilian continent" with the South American one. Two curves, one on the vertical plane, and one on the horizontal plane pay homage to Oskar Niemeyer and Burle Marx. The first, a chaise longue integrated into the "bissuoli" bordering the east terrace; the second, a flower bed containing a giant agave and cactus. The latter - white and curvilinear - is distinguished in form and matter by the endless terraces that appear to the eye as a horizon of parallel hatches, made over millennia to hold on these volcanic rocks a soil on which to grow spelt and a few vines.
The light that permeates this place, the winds that blow through it are the sole protagonists of an architecture that renounces speaking "loudly" in a setting where silences must remain inviolate.
UNA’s intervention unfolds through the incorporation of a number of pre-existences whilst drawing from a repertoire of typological solutions identified in ruins scattered throughout the Aeolian Islands. The house is articulated in two building volumes separated from each other by a small internal road that at its top frames a portion of the sky. The two volumes-one dedicated to the more purely domestic functions of living and one occupied entirely by a single room from which the other Aeolian islands and Sicily can be contemplated-present minimalist monochrome interiors. The rooms are characterized by smooth reflective surfaces in fine lime and the presence of alcoves that incorporate indirect lights and offer minimal cabinetry. The central sector of the volume dedicated to living is traversed by a double pass-through room that contains a green Officine Gullo professional kitchen. A green similar to the sage-green that connotes the house's windows and doors.
Isolated at the ultimate apex of the mount, the room is bordered on the inside by a masonry sofa where an unexpected "cushion" of split-cut travertine stands out among the soft linen cushions, forming the base of a fireplace that celebrates the presence of fire in this house. To allow the eye to slip out into the immensity of nature all the sharp edges of this room are rounded, inducing the effect of a "liquid" space.
This house's desire to be within and part of nature itself translates into the desire to make the boundaries between interior and exterior blurred not only through curved surfaces, but also by ensuring a continuity of the walking surface, which-without thresholds or changes in elevation-evenly extends into all interior rooms and into the three terraces overlooking the sea.
In these terraces, two elements conceptually reunite the "Sicilian continent" with the South American one. Two curves, one on the vertical plane, and one on the horizontal plane pay homage to Oskar Niemeyer and Burle Marx. The first, a chaise longue integrated into the "bissuoli" bordering the east terrace; the second, a flower bed containing a giant agave and cactus. The latter - white and curvilinear - is distinguished in form and matter by the endless terraces that appear to the eye as a horizon of parallel hatches, made over millennia to hold on these volcanic rocks a soil on which to grow spelt and a few vines.
The light that permeates this place, the winds that blow through it are the sole protagonists of an architecture that renounces speaking "loudly" in a setting where silences must remain inviolate.
| Project Title: | Eolian House |
| Location: | Sicily, Italy |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Status: | Ongoing |
| Program: | Residential |
| Scale: | M |
| Surface: | 600 sqm |
| Client: | Private |
| Partner: | Giulia Foscari |
| Team: | Alberto Spinella (Project Architect), Fabrizio Esposito |
| Consultants: | Studio Piccone (Construction Supervision), Giovanni Rando (General Contractor), Paolo Bettella (MEP), Capoferri (Windows and Doors) |
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