Casa PLS
A house which means to be a shelter, a boat, a wooden box in a glass box, a hut.
It's a contemporary building hiding its wooden soul: a core of cross laminated timber hidden under a white smooth skin.
A core of cross laminated timber hidden under a white smooth skin. The spiral staircase is a sculpture, the feminine which breaks and reconnects the simple grid of the system. The roof is a blanket laid down on an invisible wire, an origami valley fold.
Architectural rules are decomposed by one single starting action: the ridge beam has been moved from its traditional position and it's now laying diagonally on a classic rectangular plan. The result is a really different structure from standard wooden houses.The roof is bearing by cross laminated timber beams carefully designed and calculated, it recalls a primordial sense of building: the “hut” is covered and protected by “a white light blanket”.
The ridge beam rotation towards the corners defines the peculiar house shape and contributes to satisfy client's needs: West facade is higher to appreciate the view of the surrounding countryside while the South one is lower to protect the night area. At the same way also regulatory requirements are turned into strong architectural points: for example terraces, necessary to reduce the house volume, became the opportunity to give more transparency at the inside.
The distributed system is simple and spaces are organized according to the sun direction: a protected night area at north and a living area, completely opened towards the garden, at south. An open floor plan gives the residents plenty of freedom within, and spaces move fluidly one into another: the house is literally a continuum of spaces and a prefabricated helicoidal stair fluidifies the stories connection too.
Indoor comfort is guaranteed by a proper building insulation and an accurate design based on sun path studies: in winter, when the angle of the sun is low, the sun’s rays reach through the windows the inside and warm it; in summer, when the sun is almost at the Zenith, the overhanging roof and the walls protect the inside from the hard summer sun.
