House L

By Caterina Testa - 1 September 2020
Jung has participated in the project

In Italy’s Trentino Alto Adige region, the culture of the contemporary is widely popular. Over the last 20 years, the local Chamber of Architects and construction-industry craftsmen have had the foresight to pursue new projects with a contemporary approach. This synergy has made it possible to educate all population groups about contemporary culture, and that knowledge has bedded down. Nowadays, people who want to renovate or build a new house go with an architectural firm capable of bringing innovative aesthetic and technological solutions to the table.

Alongside its offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore, Plasma Studio’s Italian base is in Trentino Alto Adige, where Ulla Hell mainly handles residential projects that reflect the regional strategy of propagating a culture of contemporary design at all levels. Leveraging an international dimension alongside strong territorial roots makes it possible for the firm to conceive
leading-edge, contemporary projects that are always tied in to the location’s spirit and materials.

The House L project was the brainchild of a woman - a wife and mother of two boys - who before even deciding where to build approached Plasma Studio for help in finding and conceiving her family’s future home. Location scouting focused along the Casies Valley, between Bruneck and the Italo-Austrian border. After a lengthy and unsuccessful search, it was decided to renovate an old, now obsolete Fifties home. Although large and well exposed, the lot was penalized by the proximity of manufacturing and commerce along the valley floor road.

Working within these constraints, Plasma Studio designed the project to make the most of the surrounding beauty and nature. A large fir tree in the middle of the lot became the fulcrum around which the new house was designed. House L is located in a small hollow that shields the property from the main course of the valley, with an old silver fir...