The Malatesta building is a country side hotel located in the Marche region in Italy. The architect, Michele Gambato, designed it for a family who wanted to change their lifestyle and move to the countryside to begin with their new hotel enterprise. The project begins from the restoration of three existing buildings. The main building was built at the end of the 19th century to be enlarged during the first half of the 20th century, two additional buildings were added at a later date. The buildings had been ruined by the weather and time, and the project was aimed to bring them back to life, to emphasize their connection to the countryside. These buildings , in fact, used to have a very important part in the economy of this area, as farmer’s houses . They were therefore rebuilt by using the original stone , but contemporary design was used in the organization of the openings, larger than the original ones, framed by a layer of corten, and placed almost randomly on the facade. The interior of the buildings has been completely redesigned to suit the needs of the hotel. The central part of the main building is designed as a double-height living space, while the guest’s rooms and the owner’s apartment are located at the first floor, connected by a suspended walkway over the double height space. The plant rooms are located in the small basement. One of the smaller buildings hosts the spa, connected to a long rectangular swimming pool, while the other one contains three more independent rooms. All the buildings have been designed to ensure sustainability, energy saving and seismic safety. The package of the external walls is 65 cm thick. It is made of 30cm of the original local stone, 8cm of thermal insulation and 25 cm of concrete blocks. This way the buildings comply to the anti-seismic regulations and also achieve great levels of environmental efficiency. In fact they don’t need any air conditioning in the summer and during the cold months have a very reduced heat loss. The installation of solar panels and of a heat-exchange boiler, make the buildings energetically self-sufficient.
RESTAURATION
PROJECT SUMMARY
A farm house in the countryside of the Marche area of Italy, has been reconstructed and turned into a country side hotel. Thanks to this intervention the original typology of rural architecture took on a new meaning. This particular hill area is known as Malatesta since the end of 15th century and it was used for agricultural purposes by the lords of Rimini. The complex is formed by a main house that was built at the end of 19th century , from local stone of Montajate, then expanded in the first half of the 20th century. Later two annexes were added. From the 1960 onwards the property was abandoned. The aim of the project was to find the distinctive features of the build and to emphasise the connection to the countryside. The purpose was to create an architecture based on a structural integrity with precise design coherence between the new and the existing. New, innovative materials, such as concrete, Corten steel and iron were just a gentle addition to the original structure and were supposed to recover the original shape and volume with its architectural elements, such as local stone, wood and antique details. This intervention gave the place an atmosphere of architectural beauty and aesthetics.
TECHNICAL REPORT The farmhouse takes on the original shape: The intervention on the inside of the farm house included a full consolidation of the building according to the seismic regulations. Due to derelict condition of the buildings it was also necessary to strengthen and stabilise the existing foundation through underpinning process. New load-bearing walls made out of concrete were created right next to the existing walls and connected to them through pins and brackets. A 10cm thick layer of thermo insulation was placed in-between both walls. Due to this applied system the original stone wall has now no longer a structural but rather an aesthetic function as an external cladding. The total thickness of the wall is now 65 cm (25 cm structural wall, 10 cm insulation and 30 cm original stone wall). The new system reacts structurally as a single block and guarantees a more safe reaction of the building when subject to stresses. The attention to detail was paid in particular to windows as the main light source, which position and size also had to be reinvented in order to conform to the actual norms and building regulations. The new windows are square openings that are positioned in a non-linear way in the facade. In order to gain maximum light, a splayed window solution on the inside was used, which is also a quite typical feature of a country side window in that particular area of Italy. Corten steel was used as the material for the window frame.
The farmhouse takes on a new use as a countryside hotel:
The spatial design solution for the main house included living head quarters for the owners with a double height ceiling in the living room and entrance area, a kitchen, plus five additional guest rooms. Further two guest rooms and a suite were positioned into neighbouring annex. In order to turn the former farm house into a real recreation destination further annex was transformed into a spa.
The outdoor space is characterized by autochthonous vegetation which also had to be preserved though gentle retouch by adding similar greenery in areas where necessary. The landscape was supposed to be kept as natural as possible and camouflage any traces of human intervention.
