House TR
The context, in which this intervention takes place, is the neighborhood built in 1920 by the “Cesare Battisti Cooperative among railway workers of Trento” and designed by Emanuele Kern. The individual residential units measured 5 x 10 m in plan and originally had 2 floors above ground, 1 basement and 1 attic for storage, connected through an internal stairwell.
Externally, the rhythmic facades are characterized by a simple and regular arrangement of the openings and by a concrete molded ledge at the base of the roof, elements inspired by the Italian vernacular architecture.
The intervention is limited to the first floor and in particular to the attic, for which an addition of a new volume was designed in order to transform it into a living space.
To avoid that new volume could be perceived as an alteration of the original facade, it was decided to treat the emerging volume as a recognizable and formally distinct element: the metal cladding, painted in dark brown, the absence of overhanging elements from the roof and the wide windows declare the contemporary nature of the new intervention and prevent it from being confused with the existing one.
Inside, the space is conceived as an open space, obtained by replacing the supporting wall with a steel portal hidden inside the lateral walls.
The only "built" element is a new volume, covered with birch wood paneling, which contains the stairwell and becomes a furnishing element, whose large circular window brings natural light towards the staircase, visually connecting the area of the kitchen with the circulation spaces.
