MCM - pine cone house

The historic rural family house, remodeled in the mid-70s, turns into a modern, single-family house with a 'pensieve' and a panoramic terrace on the upper floor.
The design philosophy was to transform the original introverted and dark building in the interiors into a house all facing the outside, bright and open, with new views towards the garden, the architectural emergencies (baroque church of Santa Venera della Madonna delle Grazie ) and natural landscapes. This has been achieved, yes, by significantly modifying all the elevations and giving a new connotation outside the house, but with the desire, to keep the original internal structure legible and enhance, typical of many spontaneous rural buildings scattered throughout the Marsala countryside. It is in fact characterized by a large central elongated rectangular hall with a flat roof, overlooked by four rooms, two on each side, vaulted into a dammuso with an internal height of 4.80 m. Although the distribution has changed, adapting it to the needs of the family, the structure has remained totally legible.
The entrance porch added on the main front in the 70s was also recovered with new proportions, which was disproportionate and monumental, transformed into a winter garden attached to the living room. This solution allowed us to open the whole living room towards the garden, bringing a lot of light inside.
Finally, the access staircase, previously positioned centrally to the main facade, has been modified to accentuate the monumentality of the portico, replacing it with a new more informal staircase with a clear Mediterranean reference.
To support the architectural intervention, a heating and cooling system with underfloor radiant panels and dehumidification has been included, with a heat pump that uses 12 Kw of photovoltaic system on the roof, making the house climatically comfortable in all seasons and with energy consumption very low if not zero.