Before we explain our thoughts on our design, we would like to thank you for the opportunity to take part in this contest, the renovation of a villa in Carpi, province of Modena. As we stated it, they built the house in 1961 by Tuscan architect Chiasserini and we followed his thoughts, just to upgrade the whole design according to the investor’s spatial needs with a contemporary fling. We recognise two main volumes and emphasized this in the final look of the renovation, by keeping these elements white and clean, and everything else redesigning in glass light construction. About the functional division, later on. The concept of the characteristic concrete-made balconies that are barely touching the house on the east side, we converted in more self-sustainable steel construction, that supports glass handrails and paths, with wooden flexible shutters, converting the existing balconies into independent construction.

Let’s start at the very beginning. We switched the main entrance, and now the main approach is from the east side, instead of from the south. This approach divides the object into two volumes, and as we previously mentioned this is a part of our concept. Now we have a ground floor that is united through unified flooring material (a stone's irregular shape tiles), and we kept the structural elements of the previous design (having these strong elements as memory pattern).

The GROUND FLOOR

On the ground floor, we merged two functions- summer kitchen and gathered relaxed seating with spa and gym. This allowed us to place the swimming pool on the south side of the parcel and still to be hidden from the street with vegetation. The property line, in a function of a fence, we placed a combination of a stone structure and wooden planks. From the south to the north we have a swimming pool with a natural filtering method, summer semi-open kitchen with vertical planting system, keeping the chimney, and using it as a gathering point. We kept the position of the existing main staircase, we just changed the approach to it- now the whole structure is being approachable from a very central point. Next to the staircase, we planned a glass elevator. These two elements lead to a warm connection between the two main volumes. The garden design is an organic shape, giving opposed energy of the cubic shape of the object.

The SOUTH VOLUME- day house

This volume is actually the existing building structure where we add rooftop access and functional solution for it. The access to this volume is through glass structure (the connection between the ground floor and the east volume), and open-air access from the glass- still-wooden construction. This volume provides the design with a living area with kitchen and dining on the first floor and working space with a cinema/presentation room on the second floor. The rooftop is providing space for a night gathering around the fireplace.
We enrich space with two patios, allowing nature to shape the interior design.

The NORTH VOLUME- night house

This volume keeps the existing structure and perimeter walls with a changed functional organisation than before. The access is from the glass structure that connects the staircase, elevator, and the other volume. Also, open-air access is available to every room individually. On the first floor, there are two kids' bedrooms (with walk-in closet and bathroom each) with a washing room and a common space for playing video games, reading and watching movies.
We dedicate the second floor to the main bedroom. There is a spacious bathroom, two walk-in closets, and an open bath. There is lantern light in two horizontal stripes, which combined with the choice of the furniture, gives luxurious and yet very simple value to space.
Both floors share one patio that starts from the first floor and communicates with the second floor.

The GLASS PROMENADE

We recognized the balconies on the west side of the object as a characteristic element of the previous (60’s) design, and we emphasized this element by replacing it with one wooden glass promenade. This separated structure gives one vertical moving on the west facade, allowing an entrance in every room separately. On two big portions, there are wooden shutters that can be arranged depending on the user (there are more scenarios of how this shutters will look like).


The main idea of the proposed design is to respect the previous architectural solution and to boost it with a contemporary flavour.