Martinelli House
Cene, Italy, 2000
Martinelli House
Cene, Italy, 2000
Design proposal. The project site is part of a row of late modified traditional in-town farmhouses. This proposal tries to interpret the original typological character of such houses. Around the middle of the twentieth century, there was a general practice to modify these houses to achieve full residential use. Typically, major changes had occurred along the south facing terraces, that eventually became part of their enclosed volumes. Regular size windows ended up substituting the once open frontal volumes on two stories. Here, a new permeable glass facade reinterprets its original character. The horizontal use of slats brings to mind the typical construction of the open balcony, where vertical trellises not only secured the edge of the balcony, but were also used to hang rows of corn to dry for domestic provisions. The distinction on the front facade of the vertical rhythm of the slats is justified by the functional spaces behind. The denser rows of slats on the first floor identify with the bedroom level, in sink with a natural sense of privacy. The more spaced rows of slats of the second floor relate to the living room and kitchen floor behind them, and this is also the floor better served by natural daylight.






