Villa Eclisse
Located on a hilltop outside the Baroque city of Noto, Villa Eclisse was designed as the new permanent home for a client that had spent most of their lives living and working in New York and London. Thus the form, spatial configuration and materials of the villa reflect both their urban past and their new rural surroundings.
Externally the villa takes the archetypal form of a baglio; a fortified agricultural building particularly prevalent in southeastern Sicily, its typical features are defined by thick defensive walls, courtyards and a tower containing the main living spaces. Internally however a more modern spatial quality prevails, seen in the inclusion of open plan living areas, sunken seating and minimal built-in furniture.
Also inspired by its immediate context of XVII century baroque architecture, the villa is arranged along an enfilade; an alignment of openings in sequential rooms that provide a vista through the building and framed views of the landscape beyond. Along this axis the quality of light varies between direct sun, filtered daylight and dark shadows to define a rhythmic transition between the bedrooms and courtyards.
Due to the requirement for flexibility the villa can function as separate living areas that are linked together by the axial circulation. This axis also orientates the house towards the view of the Sicilian coastline. Along the linking axis small courtyards separate the bedrooms creating a series of private, semi-private and shared spaces. The different degrees of privacy are primarily controlled through the manipulation of terraced floor levels, with lowered seating areas given their own views of the landscape through the perimeter walls.
In terms of the materials of the villa, urban and rural influences informed the use of exposed raw materials such as stone, concrete, resin and walnut, with a combination of large modern glazing and more traditional punctured openings.
In-between the courtyards are separate bedrooms and bathrooms lined in concrete and solid walnut, which are then wrapped with either grey render or local stone. By choosing a minimal palette of materials their application, detailing and finish have been rigorously developed and executed with great care. The structural stonewalls have been constructed from irregular surplus collected from the surrounding fields and stacked precisely, without grouting, into a crisp cube. After numerous prototypes the layout, size and texture of formwork as well as the composition of the concrete itself was developed to give walls a textile-like quality while the ceilings emphasise the patina of their formwork. The smooth concrete, bespoke walnut screens and built-in furniture, alongside fabric curtains define a tactile interior in juxtaposition to the harsh external environment.
