Private House

Bergamo, Italy

This house occupies a lot vacated by the pre-existing building dating back to the 1960’s that was completely demolished to give place to the new structure. The trapezoidal lot of approximately 1,000 m2 is delimited on the south east side by the Cappelletta road and the Dante Alighieri street.

The house draws from and interprets in an original manner the essential forms and the use of materials of local architecture, tainted by elements drawn from a personal figurative repertory.

The project solves the theme of a home by adopting a traditional distributive scheme that sees the living areas and utilities at ground level and the night time area on the first floor; nevertheless, it arranges these spaces in an original and unexpected way as it orders them on the basis of a precise module, which also resolves the design of the façades and the relationship between the masses and the voids of the building. This precise design is evidenced in the façade through the use of the material of excellence: the brick. Lastly, the topography of the terrain has contributed to a development of an L-shaped building plan.

As in my other projects, the commitment is made to achieve a balance between the in-forming principles and the construction practice, between theory and praxis, between formal intuition and construction solution and the choice of technology, in compliance with the building code and the predetermined cost limits.

The load bearing structure is in reinforced concrete, the external cladding is entirely in brick; all other components of the façades and the two large chimneys are in granite. The use of these two materials, brick and granite, constitutes the predominant element of the house.

The interiors of the home are sober and luminous. On the ground level a large, marble paved open space contains the kitchen, dining and living rooms; the latter is visually separate by the central stair leading to the upper level.

Enclosed by walls entirely lined in cherry wood, the stair in Trani marble constitutes the central element of the house and performs a double function as the vertical connection and as the screen between the areas of the home. All rooms on ground level are daylit through the openings that articulate the controlled views of the garden. The east wing of the house contains the utilities: bathroom, laundry, services room and the garage.

The sleeping areas on the upper level have parquet flooring and comprise three bedrooms with bathrooms, a balcony over the entrance, a loggia at the opposite end of the house and a large terrace toward the south.

A generous distribution of windows guarantees good natural illumination and grants a sensation of the extension of domestic space toward the garden.

Throughout the house the furniture is built in wood by able artisans using traditional techniques; it has been designed with the building, reciprocating a single, clear design concept.

Project and work supervision

Massimiliano Gamba

Chronology

Project: 2000 | 2001

Construction: 2001 | 2002