The existing structure is a collection of rural buildings that were built on our site throughout a period of time. Although they do not have any spectacular architectural traits, they are nicely placed on the landscape and have the lyrisism that comes with old buildings that are falling apart.

VOLUMETRIC STUDY: The official drawings are not particularly enlightening so we are able to play around with the proportions of the buildings. We respect the footprint of the existing structure (with very few exceptions) and we fine tune the heights of the walls and the angles of the pitched roofs. Our goal is to define a well proportioned composition of volumes that encompass the spaces we have envisioned while respecting the requirements of the Sovreintndenza. The clean pattern of the load bearing walls is revealed by the detail at the edge of the roofs.

For the most part we keep the existing openings of the structure. However, we have punctured a few new wholes into the shell of the building in order to open up the new residential uses (remember part of this structure was a stable). The new openings are:

On the Northern side, the landscape proportioned opening in the front facade of the living room that frames the view of the sea and the small openings that give the top rooms with a glimpse of the horizon.

On the Southern side a new opening for the entrance into the house and a new opening in the kitchen. Of course both of these new openings are not on the exterior facade of the structure. The courtyard wall conceals them.

The layout that we walked through on site has fortunately worked out quite smoothly on paper.

The top floor has two 'sailing cabin' rooms. The staircase from below leads directly to the balcony facing the fields. The balcony becomes accessible so that everybody can step up from the living room and enjoy the view of the field behind. On either side of the corridor to the balcony, we locate a shower area and two doors into the rooms. The rooms have an ensuite toilet. One of them enjoys access to the balcony, the other enjoys views in three directions.

The ground slopes down towards the sea. So, there is a 2 meter difference in the height of the ground between the southern edge of the house to the North edge of the chicken area. We make the ground floors and verandas completely flat to facilitate motion. In order to accomplish this we play with the earth around the house to smoothen things.