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In northern Italy’s Valtellina valley, a residence that combines functional living with wellness to bring a contemporary face to a rural setting
Casa B, a home designed by Alfredo Vanotti, is an interplay of geometries that overlooks the Sassella and Maroggia vineyards in Valtellina, near Sondrio. The layout of the home grew from a meeting between a square, corresponding to the living area, and a diagonally cut rectangle, the entrance and the garage below it.
The home has an east-west orientation and is organized around an open courtyard overlooked by the bedrooms. Facing south, the pool and sundeck have stunning views across the valley floor and the peaks of the Orobie Alps. A sauna and large living area also face south.
The project lies beyond any precise typology, combining living with more sophisticated wellness functions.
Downhill from the property, vineyards hide the home from people on their way from the village of Castione, therefore ensuring the privacy of the residents and giving greater freedom to the organization of the home’s interiors. The design responds to the client’s brief for absolute privacy without sacrificing views of the landscape. Vanotti therefore used Castione’s natural setting as an integral part of the residence.
Casa B has Austrian pine cladding, interrupted by strap windows that bring natural light into the bedrooms and passageways. In the corridor between the living and sleeping areas, the sequence of openings creates a sense of visual perspective, crossed by a fold of reinforced concrete. A Roman impluvium was the inspiration for the open courtyard, which is surrounded by the sloping roof.
The lack of correspondence between the elevations and floorplan, the apparent contradiction between the overall view and the foundation plan, and the different treatment of the volumes all reflect the typical profile of the rural centers along the Alpine slopes.
All the compositional elements of Casa B reflect those found in the nearby mountain village. The open courtyard, for example, recalls the plaza and churchyard, and their views of the countryside. The property wall draws its inspiration from medieval city walls. The timber cladding recalls the shelters, woodsheds, and shacks found on the edges of mountain farms. Finally, the exposed concrete headers reinterpret observation buttresses.
These features from a thousand years of rural tradition combine with other, highly contemporary elements. The grooved charcoal eaves with their vein of zinc coping, for example, are a tribute to Mies Van der Rohe.
Location: Sondrio, Italy
Client: Private
Built-up Area: 250 sq. m
Architect: EV + A lab | Alfredo Vanotti Architetto
Photography by Marcello Mariana, courtesy of Alfredo Vanotti
