Enrico Iascone Architects

By Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi - 20 October 2009

There seem to be two promising avenues for Italian architecture nowadays. The first aims to humanize technology, taking its cue from Mario Cucinella who in turn developed it from his apprenticeship with Renzo Piano. The second is to play the specific qualities of materials for all they are worth, the artist’s rather than scientist’s approach; in this our country is greatly indebted to Herzog & de Meuron. How might one combine the two courses and mould them into one original whole? Such was the question Enrico Iascone set himself in his latest projects, one of which is a newly-finished house in a wood on the outskirts of Bologna. The salient features here are the choice of materials, constructional simplicity, the play of light and colour, and realism. The building stands in extensive grounds and was commissioned to turn a manor-house outbuilding into a guesthouse, somewhere to meet friends in, and let the children play. The necessary volume came from demolishing a hangar for farm machinery, the outline of which had to be preserved - thanks to some quirk of local building commission officiousness. The constraint was got round by bowing to the rules as to shape but ridding the new construction of its former rusticity which would have clashed with real renovation. Again, by adroit landscaping and positioning of windows, a basement was put to good use as sleeping quarters. So despite the small size and obligatory outline, the building was successfully made to fit the original bill. From a formal point of view here the choice of cladding is all: wood panelling painted a dark hue. This dialogues with the surrounding oaks, ashes and maples and heightens the contrast between the organic shapes of nature and the geometrical form of the construction. The strategy is also helped by how the immediate surrounds to the building were handled, avoiding any artificial material like square manufactured paving slabs. The house seems both to pick up some quality of its territory...