Garden House, strikingly modern and wrapped in a wooden screen

This single-storey villa, in the suburbs of Lecce, south-east Italy, has
been transformed from a very ordinary-looking house into something
strikingly modern and considered, blending art and architecture.

The new must be subservient to the established character of the place.
The project wrapped the original building in a wooden screen and added
a new pavillon.

There are just some external stone walls remaining as witness of a preexisting building, which needs now to be completely rethought,
redeveloping the interior spaces, and above all recalibrating the external
ones, making them a real garden, and not only resulting spaces.

The need to create a separate service pavilion, has become an
opportunity to recalibrate the garden, by allocating an exclusive and
protected space to support the pavilion, using the facility spaces to the
existing large pool to redesign the pool in a small landscape work.

The pavillon was enveloped in a new wrapping- a screen of white oak
planks thah completely redefines and unifies the façade, while also
acting as a support for vegetation that is allowed to grow through it
become part of the architecture.

The airy living space is open plan and painted white to maximize the
light.

The living areas will open on pools of aquatic plants, which will
constitute the optical extension, while a small secret garden will become
the extension and, at the same time, the protection of the most private
interior spaces.

A close connection with the outside was the primary aim of this project.
The garden is the real tool to completely rethink the interior spaces.
Surrounding the pool there is a semi-trasparent screen of cedar poles
tha filters the light and when it rains, scent the air.

Wooden walkways fork towards different vistas.

Architects : Toti Semerano

Project Team :
Stefano Sabato, Salvatore Musarò, Riccardo Catamo

Lecce, Puglia, Italy