Calvenzanino is a project that recovers two existing structures of an old farmhouse along provincial road 138.
The architecture features two distinct volumes, one parallel to the road and one perpendicular to it, both volumetrically autonomous, which have a private relational space in the internal courtyard onto which they face. The project involves the maintenance of the perimeter walls of the existing buildings and the rethinking of the whole with internal structural stiffening. This allows the internal spaces to be recomposed through the construction of precise and measured spaces. The internal structural stiffening elements of the tall building become a connotative spatial matrix, two structural H-shapes house the service spaces and the plant-engineering units in the optimisation of the technical elements. The vertical connection system of the tall body rethinks the pre-existing gallery system by building a wooden identitary diaphragm facing the inner secret garden. At the foot of the building, the pre-existing historical vocation is maintained with a space for catering that has been reimagined and then opens out towards the open space inside the garden where a large red oak stands, which becomes a connotative identifying element.
On the upper floors, on the other hand, there are two levels of temporary residency, characterised on the first floor by a double system of coupled transversal beams that intersperse the exposed floor; on the second floor, there are duplexes with a double-height space that reveals the abstract roof element with its exposed pitch. The lower volume perpendicular to the road houses two independent apartments that recover the old barn, and which opens out towards the inner courtyard, reimagining the front with a system of windows interspersed with wooden elements that reinterpret the rural tradition. The spatial and material dialogue between new and old is the main theme of the project.
In addition to the buildings, another element of the project was the inner garden, which was redesigned to create spaces for plants, spaces for bicycle parking and spaces for commercial use on the ground floor. The old exterior plaster has been removed to reveal the pre-existing brick walls. The windows and openings that were no longer necessary have been highlighted in the closure and in the infill with a new smooth white lime plaster finish; while the new openings dot the façades of the main building creating a precise rhythmic scan of the fronts. The last layer of white that envelops the buildings, the most refined of the lime washings, forms the outermost skin of the architecture in an abstraction that combines contemporary elements with traditional elements.
Client: private
Volume: 1320 m3
Surface: 440 m2
Project year: 2020
Completion: 2020-ongoing
Architectural project: FORM_A
Design team: Andrea Fradegrada, Sandra Maglio with Christian Spolti
Consultants: ZH srl, Geolambda Engineering S.r.l., Studio associato MPM
Images: Onirism