Barbieri House

If it is true that each project has to solve technical issues by offering a certain image, then the image can grow out of the functional, logical and low-cost unit; and can reflect, to a greater or lesser degree depending on personal projection, a certain idea of architecture. This house project started from the definition of the internal spaces. The disposition and the shaping of the rooms were delineated with the specific housing requirements of the owner. The customers were particularly pro-active in each phase of the project and execution of the building. On this premise, the project development was practical and rational; preconceived elements do not appear in the planning, which is simply finalized to achieve a determined lifestyle with the maximum living comfort. The image of this architecture, which corresponds to the structure of the living spaces, comes from the will of clarity in the project. Life spaces remain the dominant element and hierarchically the house is subject to them. The technical choices and in particular the choice of the construction method in wood were made to better meet the needs of not-so-simple solutions behind the project; the long cantilevered walkway of the big double volume hall, the angled glass wall in the living room, the large curved roofing. Today with the construction of high specification property there is also the unavoidable, and nearly taken for granted, expectation for energy saving and anti-seismic technology. In addition, the orientation and insertion of the dwellings in the lot is driven by good sense: all the living areas are directed towards the large garden “protected” by a green blanket, while the service areas are placed less predominantly and in less character endowing positions. The building exhibits itself all its truthfulness, which is made still more evident by the simplification of architectural elements to their essence, like the absence of any chromatic underlining beyond the homogenous white façades. So from a principled identity often flow similar results, this project leads in full awareness to some of the most important modern European architectural experiences, before they degenerate and become in turn style and manner.