A private house

By Francesco Pagliari - 8 January 2010

For this project at Tarcento (near Udine), the Geza studio (Gri e Zucchi Associati) started with a site containing a number of largish buildings of mixed early twentieth-century styles. The brief was to fit an extension on the master-building, landscape the open ground and put in a new garage on the sloping hillside. The grounad is partly flat and partly on a steep slope. The three constructions on it were the master-building, an outbuilding and a greenhouse. The challenge with the extension was how to blend the notion of connecting to, yet differentiating from, the pre-existing four-square building. Once the outhouses appended to the main house had been demolished, and the latter fully restored, the design task was to highlight the contrast of the new addition while giving rhythm to the various elevations. The new architectural addition connects directly onto the historical building along its eastern wall. Its visible walls are painted unconventional black to contrast with the white of the old part. A staircase was put in at the junction of the two units, using different materials to lighten the effect: the first flight in local stone, the others in a steel structure with wooden treads. Where the extension joins the main building the different character of the two architectural styles is made into a feature. The contemporary speaks a language of its own, its materials sharply defined. One device employed in the project is to set back the north and south frontages from the line of the old construction so as to emphasise the distinction, not let the extension perimeter interfere with the compact pre-existing shape, and not create difficulties of join between walls and corners of the buildings. The geometrical stiffness of the former architectural style contrasts with the varied look of the new wing and its elevations. Broad full-length glass walls give light to the interior and link strongly to the surrounding context. A double “T” section beam runs lengthwise...