"Typological hybridization" is the theme that characterizes this project, which on one hand, completes the historical building curtain of the street on the square, reinterpreting the traditional elements of the typical architecture of the historic center of Albino, while on the other hand, it transforms into a villa with a garden on the inner courtyard.

Albino is a small town where everyone knows each other, and we have often discussed with our clients the beauty of living in the square, of going out on foot and meeting friends and being able to have a coffee at the corner bar, but also of being able to stay isolated and protected in a villa that opens onto a private internal garden, being able to dine under the porch and walk barefoot on the lawn.

Piazza San Giuliano is the main square of the town, with the church of the same name in front and the 14th-century church of San Bartolomeo adjacent to the new building, the latter with numerous 16th-century frescoes by Moroni.

To understand this typological variation/transformation, one must enter, moving from the urban and public place of the square to the intimate and private one of the garden. Crossing the vaulted entrance hall and passing from the plastered external façade, which frames the openings in a refined rhythm, to the side entirely covered in Ceppo di Grè, a stone typical of modern Milan that is quarried not far from here, a representative filter where the entrance to the house is located, then turning and accessing the garden, appreciating the porch and finding the domestic aspect of this part of the building.

In reality, it is not just the main apartment on three floors, which is mostly oriented towards the interior, but the building also contains a second, smaller apartment on two floors, which faces the square.

Another important theme of this project is the articulation of the internal spaces and volumes, with the three floors overlooking a sort of full-height light well, where the various areas of the house open up. A sought-after vertical spatiality that floods all the underlying internal environments with light and connects the places and people living in the house. The vertical light contrasts with the horizontal views that cross the space and pierce the large sloping roof to form the porch on the ground floor and the various terraces on the upper floors.

The material palette is equally refined and diversified, both for the exteriors and interiors, where natural stones like Ceppo, Basaltina, and Invisible Grey alternate with natural oak and black-stained elm woods, reaching the raw waxed iron and colored mirrors. 

The design of the interior and furniture was quite challenging and conceived with the intention of creating a refined and representative domestic space, but also tranquil and relaxing, where one of the most important elements is the ribbed oak boiserie that covers an entire side of the triple-height light well. Many pieces of furniture were custom designed for this house, and others were designed by our studio for important Italian companies like B&B Italia, Alias, Porro, and FontanaArte.

This project was an important opportunity in which our studio was able to concentrate in a single work, the way, which it prefers, of working simultaneously at different scales of the project. The idea and practice, typically and traditionally Italian, of being architects and designers and experimenting with the leap, the continuity/contiguity of scale, moving from architecture to interior, from furniture to product design, with the awareness that the theme is to understand the scale and be able to control and interpret it in each of its design aspects.