Located at the edge of a small historical town in the Oltradige wine growing region in South Tyrol, Northern Italy, Casa Visibilio is a 1,090 square metre house set on a 3,076 square metre elongated promontory plot that looks out to panoramic views of the valley, fields, vineyards, and apple orchards.
Designed by Sandy Attia and Matteo Scagnol, of Italian architecture studio MoDusArchitects, the house calibrates a gradient of different relationships with the surrounding context; at times capturing breathtaking long views outwards, and at other times, forming intimate indoor-outdoor living spaces.
Its owners are a couple with two children who wanted a home that included a dwelling for visiting family members, and one that would be able to accommodate multiple generations over time. It was also important their home reflected their active lifestyle.
“As a way to capture the family’s lifestyle, we titled our initial project proposal ‘joie de vivre’ which then became Casa Visibilio. Visibilio is a beautiful word in Italian that holds together a constellation of meanings and really reflects the philosophy of the family and the way they like to live life with gusto,” Attia says.
The floor plan includes a fulcrum in the double-height living room, around which the different domestic programmes are set. A single ramp staircase serves as the architectural centrepiece that connects the three levels of the house.
“The sequence of spaces from the outside in, and from the inside out, was carefully planned for functionality, but also to be a matrix of differentiated outdoor environments attuned to the weather and seasonal changes,” Scagnol says.
For example, in winter, the airy double-height covered space of the dining room can become an outdoor living room where the family can soak up the sunshine, while in spring, this space offers shelter from the rain. The three-level house is divided into two living units – the main house where the family lives, and an adjoining apartment where the grandparents can stay when they visit.
The basement level, which contains a garage and storage spaces, is accessed from the outdoors via a curved ramp. This subterranean level has an entry vestibule with a top-lit niche that draws in sunlight.
On one side of this vestibule is an atelier space and on the other is a bathroom with a shower, laundry area, and a large multi-use space with a well-lit and well-ventilated sunken rock garden.
From this rock garden, a short flight of stairs leads down to a wine cellar. “The sunken level helps to calibrate the temperature of the room naturally. The main staircase leads up from this basement level to the ground floor,” Attia says.
On the ground floor, a central staircase divides the double-height living room from the entry hallway. This hallway can be accessed from the main door, which is connected to the outdoor entrance courtyard via a covered outdoor walkway.
“This entrance courtyard is a walled outdoor space with an automatic sliding vehicular gate with oblique views towards the historical city centre,” Scagnol says.
“This space was conceived as an outdoor area and includes a water feature and a gurgling fountain. It is fitted with a large window that establishes a visual connection from the front entry courtyard all the way down the length of the house through to the kitchen and dining area, then out again to the covered living room space on the garden on the south side of the house.”
An entry vestibule on the ground floor is furnished with a large built-in wardrobe which includes a closet space for jackets and shoes for each family member, and a bench seat where one can sit and look out across the garden. Just beyond the bench is a guest bedroom and bathroom.
The living room was designed as an airy space with a central staircase to the north and a glazed wall that looks south onto the garden. Here, there is also a sculptural fireplace with an intricate system of hidden flues and controls that help to maintain warmth over many hours.
Also on the ground level is a small study, a media room, and an open plan kitchen and dining area set diagonal to the living room. This indoor dining and kitchen area was designed as a single open room with one brick-faced wall that continues outdoors where an external living and dining room are located.
“The design of the kitchen is centred around a locally sourced porphyry stone island that acts as a social anchor point. A side door to the east of the kitchen opens onto the breakfast patio, which is adjacent to a herb and vegetable garden,” Attia says.
The upper level is divided into two sections bridged by a gallery that runs the length of the central staircase. This gallery is lined with custom, inbuilt closets, and a central reading niche lined with billowing upholstery.
On one side of this gallery is a library and study, and on the other is the master en suite bedroom which includes a large walk-in closet and adjoining terrace. The library, bathroom, and walk-in closet all share the same balcony.
A laundry room and the children’s bedrooms are also located on this top level. The material and colour palette used for the interiors were guided by the house’s architectural language and change from dark earthy hues to lighter shades as one moves vertically through the space. “The interior architecture is designed to make one feel at home,” Attia says.
“Casa Visibilio is a house that could have already stood here and have been lived in for many years – its materiality and its tectonic presence emanate from its very walls to envelop its residents in a full-bodied experience, similar to what one might encounter entering a beautiful old villa in the countryside.”
Although the house was carefully crafted as an integral part of the landscape for a specific client, Scagnol says the project also carried with it a repertoire of design ideas that MoDusArchitects were interested in exploring.
“We were fascinated by the tension between straight lines and curves and the spatial possibilities that this generates. We were also interested in how the different parts of a project – architectural elements, the structural logic, the spatial relationships, etc – could be construed as separate from, but also part of, a larger whole,” he says.
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