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Architects: Adam Bresnick
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Amores pictures
Text description provided by the architects. The house was built at the end of the 19th century as one of six hotels for the daughters of a Baron. Almost a Herrerian toy, it is a rectangle of 26 x 11.5m of granite masonry, topped by a four-sided tiled roof.
The entrance door is framed by two Tuscan pilasters topped with two obelisks. The house is connected to the sloping plot by two terraces enclosed by granite walls, stairs, and balusters, leaving the rest of the plot gently sloping to the south.
Abandoned, and occupied, the house had undergone many modifications over the years. The intervention has been careful in terms of materials and concepts, based on existing elements to adapt the house to the 21st century.
To this end, the staircase was relocated, creating a triple height with zenithal light at the entrance, a vertical dilation that organizes circulations while accommodating the geometries and axes of the main house. This gesture of verticality allows for natural ventilation as a chimney.
The granite box is cleaned, and insulated, and the central brick wall is left exposed, bearing witness to the passage of time. The ground floor is laid with polished concrete, only the thresholds of passage in the brick wall are marked with boards of Campaspero limestone, while black plaster backings allow for the passage of installations.
The monolithic staircase of the same concrete emerges from the ground, connecting the ground floor with the first floor where a steel sheet walkway provides access to the 3 en-suite bedrooms with their bathrooms. Inside the rooms, a saw-cut oak parquet floor dialogues with the materiality of the brick wall and the white-stained pine flooring.
The ground floor is a single space, a living room occupying the entire length of the garden, a kitchen on one side of the entrance hall, and a music room on the other. Two large windows were opened in the mid-20th century and are articulated with their interior carpentry to accentuate the fact that they are later interventions. They are two modern eyes, both views and access. The second of these openings, a large pivoting window, connects directly to the garden through a terrace with metal profiles and tramex.
The destiny of a historic garden was treated with care and an integrative project, using a palette of jabre granite, and native plants. The two upper terraces are almost a reconstruction of the original, while in the lower garden, a meander is traced incorporating trees, a well, and existing views to create a new path that moves away from the austerity and geometry of the house to enter into a dreamlike world, ending in a swimming pool and pavilion.
