'Rural Barcode' is a residential landscape that is located in the North of Sicily near the town of Castellamere del Golfo. Within a large estate there is an existing rural structure that will be preserved and transformed into a residence. The large estate has a very particular topography. It is higher on the sides and lower in the middle, forming a bowl. The bowl provides privacy to the estate. It also defines a clear experiential axis that runs through its center, from North to South, passing through the residence. During our initial site visits we found ourselves walking up and down this axis, enjoying the variety of sensory potential that lied dormant there. Our proposition has focused on this axis, creating a sequential barcode of interventions that stimulate and amplify the senses. 

We have addressed the entire landscape in a manner that is both lyrical and strategic. We have defined a strip of intensified intervention which is narrow (25m) and long (500m). It runs along an axis starting from the Southern boarder and reaching the sea in the north. This strip contains all of the program that relates to the residence: The building, the pool, the underground spaces, the parking area, the solar pannels and the fields. The Southern side of the strip starts at the residence and flows up the hill towards the road.

THE TIMELAPSE FIELDS: The largest part of the strip is covered by the timelapse fields. We have not defined the plants that will be contained in the fields yet. This is something that we will need to design in collaboration with Roberta. However we would like to state our intention clearly. We envision that the fields will contain predominantly low plants that will move with the wind. There will be a variety of plants in the field however they will not be mixed. Each species will occupy a clearly deleniated area that will extend the entire width of the strip. The length of the area for each species will vary. We would like the character of the fields to change drastically throughout the annual cycle. Roberta will choreograph the sequense of plants so that they bloom at different seasons of the year. The overall composition will transform continiously throughout the year creating a colofour and dynamic timelapse canvas.

THE LEMON HOUSES: The strip is flanked by the olive orchard on both sides. The grid of the existing olive trees is extended so that the strip is clearly defined. Within the olive orchard we insert eight Lemon Houses.

Lemon houses are a traditional Mediteranean rural building typology (mostly found in Italian and Greek islands). Stone walls create an enclosure for the sensitive citrus trees in order to protect them from the strong winds. The circular atrium is primitively engineered by natural means (material and form) to create a special microclimate less dry and calmer from the outside.