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Elisa, a young storyteller, fell in love with a small, ruined villa in a forest near the Monastery of Astino, Bergamo. Built in the late 1950s on a 3000 sq m lot, the 45 sq m building seemed early 20th-century Liberty style but was actually kitsch. The project transformed the "fascination of the ruin" into a reinterpretation of the landscape, blending architecture and forest. Inspired by the Japanese concept of Komorebi (light filtering through trees), the design uses a metallic surface to reflect and filter light, creating evocative atmospheres. The house's small space expands to include the landscape, framing parts of the forest and a twisted mulberry tree.
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The pre-existing villa had no relationship with its surroundings and was paradoxically estranged from the forest it was located in; the interaction between the interior and exterior was typical of a suburban setting, very different from the historical context of the forest. Despite this, the villa's footprint began to interact with the few neighboring houses and the trees, both the native ones in the forest and those planted in the 1950s. We felt it was right to maintain this layout to preserve these dynamics. “Komorebi house” presents itself as an “urban building” on the public road, while blending with the trees within the lot.
The first sustainable action of the project was the decision to work with the pre-existing structure, thereby not wasting the "embodied energy of construction." The pre-existing building was made with "poor" materials and without any technical refinement: no insulation for the floors, walls, or roof. By maintaining the existing masonry structures, the building was insulated externally and then completely reconfigured with a new ventilated architectural "skin." On the south side, a bioclimatic greenhouse was built to further reduce energy needs. The heating and cooling system consists of radiant floor panels, and there are photovoltaic panels on the roof for electricity production. "Komorebi House" is in energy class A4, the most efficient in the Italian classification. This is the first time the project is being presented to the public.
Working with pre-existing structures is a core aspect of our professional practice. We are deeply interested in how architecture can evolve, change, and update: it’s a work on the layering of ancient or recent events that have overlapped in a place. In this project, the "fascination of the ruin" that captivated the young client is part of the design process—not in a “romantic” sense, but rather as a “poetic” approach to the minimal spaces, the relationship between interior and exterior, and the light-shadow-semidarkness of the forest. "Komorebi house" is part of this urban forest, a place already surprising in itself. The colors of the architectural "skin," the placement of openings, the perforations of the screens, the new interior "decoration" (the shadows cast by the perforated screens): all follow a poetic path dictated by the "sense" of the place. The algorithm for the perforations was based on an image of a patch of sky visible through the forest, from a photograph by Salgado. All the furniture was custom-designed and integrated with the structures to minimize space occupation, allowing the new family to find unique spaces to grow together.
Today Elisa, the young storyteller who contacted us to develop the project, lives happily in the "Komorebi House" with Michele and little Dante. "The house breathes together with the forest," she tells us enthusiastically, "it exudes positive energy." We couldn't be happier.
De8_Architetti develops diverse projects ranging from urban design to construction details, from territorial transformation to museum exhibits. Their distinctive approach, "unspecialized architecture", ensures original responses to urban and architectural issues. They have received numerous awards nationally and internationally. Recently, the focus has been on regenerating historical and architectural heritage, both at the architectural scale (such as the New Pirelli SkyscraperBelvedere) and urban level (projects in San Pellegrino Terme, the former Gres area, and former Reggiani area in Bergamo). They are involved in the regeneration project of the UNESCO-listed Crespi d'Adda Cotton Mill since 1995 and are finalizing the redevelopment of Bergamo Stadium,exploring sports buildings' potential for urban regeneration.
