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House of Flowers

Erice (TP)

Architectural Project and Construction Management: Arch. Gianni Ingardia

Structural design: Eng. Alberto Sammartano

A single-family home, at the foot of the rocky ridge of Mount Erice, in western Sicily, for a family of 5 people, aligns itself with the urban curtain, in an immediate context that is not characterized by architectural emergencies, with an elongated rectangular plan. The street front, oriented to the south, is arranged according to geometric partitions in the full/empty ratio, underlining contrasting chromatic combinations: the section covered in slate next to the white of the plaster, the pre-eminence of the fixed brise-soleil structure slightly projecting in the center of the facade, the void that signals the entrance to the house sheltered inside the building volume, the contrast between the vertical and horizontal windows in the sections at the ends of the facade. The building extends on the north-south orientation: the northern side of the house approaches the embankment with a raised garden and a paved courtyard space, which is of significant importance for the livability of the home. The outdoor space expands the living area overlooking the courtyard with a large glass window with sliding elements, forming an immediate extension. At the northern edge, the project features elements with environmental and bioclimatic value: the terraced garden accessible by a flight of stairs with a minimalist design and railing elements in white lacquered metal profiles; a small pool of water, with a waterfall that flows on the back wall of the courtyard, covered in slate. The presence of the pool of water and the waterfall introduce natural climate mitigation systems, inducing a lowering of temperature in the hot months in the circumscribed outdoor space and a circulation of cooler air by nebulization that can reach the living space, the central place of the accommodation, at double height and also illuminated by the contribution of natural light from above. A strategy of integration between architecture and natural elements thus uses the pool of water as a heat exchanger, to obtain qualitative levels of comfort and avoid as much as possible mechanical interventions or energy injection into the living system from an external source. Inside, the accommodation is organized around the living space, developed at double height. On the ground floor, the kitchen towards the inside and a study towards the street complete the provision of spaces; on the upper level, the three bedrooms for the children and the room for the parents rotate around the void in the living room, two rooms facing the street and two towards the courtyard and the raised garden. A careful calibration of the spaces in the small-sized building allows the coexistence of moments of privacy and moments of shared life, with egalitarian conditions in the standards of liveability. Even for the parents' bedroom, exposed to the north, bioclimatic strategies are adopted, through the capture of sunlight and heat from skylights and the return of heat through the thermal inertia of the masses. The interrelation between brightness and elementary geometries is a characterizing fact: the accent of the horizontal connecting paths, the widespread whiteness of the interiors, the punctuation of color that appears as a significant intersection, between sectors covered in slate and steps of the internal wooden stairs.

text taken from https://www.theplan.it/webzine/architettura-italiana/residenza-monofamiliare-casa-flores edited by Francesco Pagliari

Executing company: Geom. Pietro Maltese

Iron works: Vito Novara

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