On Lake Maggiore, one of the most charming Italian areas, AtelierP recovers a brutalist villa and gives it a new comfortable allure and soul.
Beyond the rough materiality of the fair-faced concrete and the rigid brutalist essence, a 350 m2 villa in Osmate on the Lake Maggiore, in the Varese area, designed by architect Amedeo Clavarino, lives a second life face thanks to AtelierP. In the well-known region, retreat destination of personalities such as Gae Aulenti and Umberto Riva (Casa Ferrario), Luca Piccinno Savelli Passalacqua and Mattia Pareschi intervene on this precious architectural example of the seventies with a vision that, without distorting, innovates, enriches and enlights. The approach is the respect for the pre-existence, which however must find a renewed existence and broader views, even in the literal sense. Thus revisited, the villa captures and introjects the surrounding nature and, where possible, reinforced concrete is subtracted to replace it with large sliding windows capable of emphasizing the dialogue with the part of Lake Maggiore that you might peer beyond the wooded landscape.
Of the three levels – basement, ground and first floor – it is the one at ground level that experiences a greater enlargement of all spaces, now articulated in irregularity of the floor covered in flamed American walnut wood that lights up the atmosphere and integrates perfectly with the concrete, the fil rouge that runs through the entire house between ceilings, walls and through fireplace.
Here the design firm creates a new three-sided volume that goes out towards the garden and reveals the DOGE dining table by CARLO SCARPA by connecting the various transparencies. The development of the kitchen, made to measure by MODULNOVA, from long and closed now connects with the living room where the sofas, modulated and handcrafted according to AtelierP ‘s signature design, warm up the coldness of the load-bearing structure while following its dynamic language. An impulse also favored by the double-sided fireplace, a turning point to which the various rooms are connected, starting with the studio, oriented towards the external inspiring greenery.
However minimal, the important renovations of rooms and systems serve to gain in terms living comfort and attention to detail. The entrance, for example, is curved, which softens the brutalist geometry, as well as large windows to enhanced the interiors and flood them with light. The entrance door is advanced by a couple of meters, just enough to incorporate, by rounding it, the wooden staircase leading to the basement. In the hands of AtelierP, the former tool shed becomes an all-round place of relaxation, complete with an EFFEGIBI sauna. Adjacent, the laundry room and at the end, as at the terminus of an experiential journey, the BAR and recreational area with a pool table.
A complete renovation that also contaminates the sleeping area in the attic in a refined and discreet way. The three bedrooms are inserted in a more intimate dimension, where every angle is a cutout to frame and use. Just like the window of the master bedroom whose volume has been expand by architects Piccinno and Pareschi, transforming it into a bow window that gives the extraordinary effect of "sitting in nature". The other windows, originally 1 X 1 m, extend into large rectangles of 2 m X 1 m, real telescopes for focusing on the lake.
The bareness of the concrete is dressed in light pigments that expand the natural light, especially from the bow window, and leave the task of warming up the environment to the parquet. Some vintage furnishings are the element that refers to the experience of the house and attenuate its granitic brutalism, emphasized instead on the roof through the use of stapled aluminum. Having removed the old Marseilles, the roof has become an element that combines functionality, including ventilation, with aesthetics in order to make everything aligned. In the same way, the finishes of the corten windows underline the relationship with the reinforced concrete, treated with a semi-gloss transparent varnish that protects it and highlights its reflections.
The three bathrooms - blue, red and turquoise - acquire a contemporary character thanks to CE.SI. tiles in glossy Silicon and Navy, a palette that matches the other environments and above all leaves the chromatic eccentricity of the previous interior design intact.
The exteriors are designed by a flourishing greenery created by the French landscape designer Cristiane Begonnet in the 1970s onto which a large terrace projects. From this perspective it is easy to understand how nature is the other great architect of the residence hidden between lakes Maggiore, Monate and Comabbio.
