Homes in Montefiascone: A Return to Archetypal Living

The work of gamp!, this project reinterprets traditional architecture and materials through a contemporary lens. Comprising two vacation homes built to accommodate their sloping site, the project respects the landscape and context without foregoing an innovative, contemporary edge. The project comprises two homes in the hamlet of Selciatella, Montefiascone, in the Viterbo countryside. Commissioned by a couple from Rome, it involved restoring and repurposing two tuff-built farm buildings set gently near a 17th-century manor house. The result is two structures – one smaller at approximately 150 m², the other longer and larger at 250 m². Both have pitched roofs and large chimneys, which create a counterpoint and a linking element between the two. The project earned a special mention from the jury of the POROTON^® 2022 award, which included architect Paolo Orsini, engineer Luca Peralta, and president of the POROTON^® Italia Consortium, Stefano Midolini.

Jury statement

“Simple volumes that evoke dwelling archetypes and seem to float above a gentle landscape,” reads the jury statement. “Simple, recognizable, familiar forms but with elegant small alterations, modulations, interlocking forms, extensions, additions, and subtractions of volumes that make them both special and unusual, while avoiding any sense of déjà vu.” Discussing the materials used in the project, the statement continues, “Similarly, while rooted in the traditional vocabulary of the place, the materials are used as instruments to highlight the intentionally contemporary language that carries through the entire project.” Finally, commenting on the construction system and the use of POROTON^® blocks, the statement says, “Featuring extensive use of a single-skin envelope built using high-performance bricks, the construction system demonstrates the potential and flexibility of POROTON^® blocks in making experimental, high-performing projects possible without compromising a contemporary language.”

The wall mass was achieved with 35 cm ECOPOR^® SSC building blocks, which made it possible to achieve energy class A without external insulation. The wall mass itself also functions as part of the architectural language by creating an interplay of contrasting depths with its openings.

Between past and present: the concept

The first step of the project was to clarify the original volumetric forms and material palette and therefore harmonize their design with the context and its stylistic traditions. The architects therefore focused on the archetypal gabled-roof dwelling and using materials such as trowelled plaster, stone, and brick. Moreover, as with the building methods, the architects focused on these traditional elements through a process of decontextualization and reinterpretation to produce architecture that is overtly contemporary.

One of the project’s most distinctive features is the way the structures adapt to the slope of the site, with both at ground level at one end and higher at the other. The pitched roof – whose geometry is simplified by terracotta tiles – creates a perfect volumetric continuity with the walls.

The client brief also called for the addition of a third building by reestablishing the former massing and footprint of a series of small outbuildings on the edge of the property. Used as garages, this new structure has been set into the hillsidenear the main house’s southern elevation to soften its visual presence. The old cobblestones found in the earth were reused to minimize the need for additional locally sourced stone.

To each structure a different function

The larger building is defined by a generous living area, itself dominated by a large fireplace. The completely separate sleeping wing comprises three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Mainly intended for guests, the smaller building is immediately recognizable with hand-pressed terracotta tiles used to clad both the entire external envelope and the roof, which has a rainwater drainage system integrated into the deck. The extensive use of ceramic, including as full wall coverings, adds warmth and texture to the otherwise minimalist interiors.

Outside the main house, three gazebos with slender white-painted metal frames that echo shapes of houses add a further subtle architectural accent to the scene.

Overall, this project respects its context while boldly declaring its underlying design vision.

For more information: www.poroton.it