Set in a highly valued landscape context in the upper Garda area, the “Villas in Albisano” project faces the challenge of a residential intervention that is attentive to views and domestic privacy.
The intervention is located in a low-density residential area and enjoys a privileged position with respect to the Garda lake. The context is characterized by the search for tranquility and privacy, unlike more crowded city centers. One of the central themes is the dialogue and appropriate relationship between the building and its surroundings. In these places, architecture has always had the role of enhancing the area and using a measured architectural language.
The design strategy is to organize the housing through a typological interlocking that takes advantage of the morphology of the land, where the slope of the land is seen as a design opportunity. The articulated layout follows the high slope of the terrain by defining independent areas for each housing unit. The mutual position between units with minimal angular variations ensures uniqueness of view and cancels visual interference between one unit and another. The compression and expansion of semi-public access paths is combined with a use of greenery to contrast with the brutalist character of the exposed concrete volumes.
Efforts are made to encourage views of the breathtaking panorama and to wisely manage transitional spaces. The result is a fluid semi-public space that generates alternating environments and also enhances the less exposed compartments of the housing.
In terms of aesthetics, the architecture presents a series of strong, minimal buildings that blend seamlessly with their surroundings. This is made possible by the use of four volumes, arranged at different angles, which blend harmoniously with the morphology of the land and do not obstruct the view from the street above, thanks in part to their low height. The result is a peaceful place in perfect harmony with the external environment, where the architecture seems perfectly integrated. The choice of flat roofs is not only formal, but represents an awareness of creating a coherent and unified complex through heterogeneous continuity between the interior and exterior.
The main access to the complex occurs at the top of the ground, where the entire complexity of the project can be perceived. A series of connecting elements at different levels break the natural course of the land and create a particular relationship with the building: walkways, ramps and underground passages are articulated between the exposed concrete walls, giving shape to spaces obtained by subtraction, a kind of collective space that is linked to the green and shaped on the morphology of the landscape.
In terms of floor plan, the complex consists of four square blocks of 11 meters per side, two of which are single-family villas developed on two levels and equipped with private outdoor swimming pools placed in axis with the living rooms.
The entire structure is made of exposed cast-in-place reinforced concrete, which has been treated in such a way as to distinguish the basement, with a more textured and washed-out effect, from the upper level of the upper part of the lot, where the full complexity of the project can be appreciated.
The wild treatment of open spaces counterbalances and enhances the brutalist volumetry of the buildings in relation to the sloping terrain in which they are set. The choice of greenery, natural and wild, helps to enhance the project’s defining element: the material strength of the fair-faced concrete and the brutalist solidity.
Architecture offices involved in the design:
ARDIELLI FORNASA ASSOCIATI (Concept – Architectural project – Artistic supervision);
STUDIO ING. AGOSTI (Structural project)
Location: Torri del Benaco, Verona – Italy
Design year: 2017
Year Completed: 2020
