Casa M
Medaglia d'Oro all'Architettura Italiana 2009 - Premio Speciale all’Opera Prima
The house stands on strongly sloping ground with a magnificent view over the Valley of the Tiber. The complex topography of the setting determined the basic choices that define the character of the building’s layout. The project consists essentially in the constructions of a horizontal plane, defined by a sandstone plinth which crops out of the ground and emphasizes the morphological features of the location by contrast. The base absorbs the volume of a building left incomplete and houses both the service rooms of the home and the rooms that open onto the large loggia excavated on the west side and open to the valley.
Above the base, part of the surface is occupied by the daytime quarters of the house. Rectangular in form, faced with glass on three sides and whit much use of wooden fixtures, the volume of the living room is protected by a shell in reinforced concrete faced with rendering which rises above the spacious terrace onto which it opens.
Continuity between interior and exterior is strengthened by the paving of large sandstone slabs. In the narrowest part of the terraceplinth, there is a swimming pool, set high above the surrounding landscape and projecting of the south: the pool is also hewn out of the stone volume.
The mineral texture of the plinth contrasts with the abstract lightness of the upper floor, where the weightlessness of the elements is combined with a heightened transparency.
The house offers different ways of experiencing the relationship with the surrounding landscape: on the lower floor the landscape is contemplated through the frame of the loggia which opens onto the terrace below, while on the upper floor nature pervades the whole space. The plinth offers a rich and ever-changing perception of the landscape: the experience of the house comprises the views of the distant horizon, the natural setting characterized above all by the presence of numerous olive trees surrounding the building and nature transformed by the reflections produced by the water in the pool.
