Villa S / refurbishment

Project Description

With a view on the stunning Monte Ortobene, the urban villa built in the late seventies in a residential neighbourhood needs today a revision that involves the façades, the outdoors areas and the circulation in anticipation of future organization of the family life and growing children demanding new spaces and autonomy.

The house is occupied at the first and second level, the ground floor is not used thus the garden and the wide space under the porch result neglected; from outside the massive volume due to the bold colours, ornaments and the different accretions, produces an out of scale and disharmonic effect.  

The strategy consists in the liberation of the volume, new vertical connections, the activation of the outdoor areas.
The volume has been first cleaned up and unified by one colour bringing it back to a sort of primordial status and unveiling its qualities and potentials, the new emerging elements have been finished with different plasters thus giving a monochrome yet vibrant effect to the ensemble eventually one of them has been finished with glazed gray-blue tiles introducing a variation, a background for the double order porch that reflects the light inside, a space considered as a volume attached to the east side of the house.

By means of two elements: a vertical volume of connection inserted in the porch and a horizontal surface that extends to the garden we tried to both activate the connections with the ground floor and the outdoors and a new use of them. The exterior stairs allows to link directly the living rooms-terrace-porch-garden and to access to the pool as a integral part of the house; the ground floor will host the daughters’ quarters which demanded an extensive use of the garden and the pool.

The porch thus results as a space of relation between the different parts of the house, and of sharing between the floors occupied by the parents with the main functions and the new independent units at the ground level. The garden is designed as a very natural space in opposition to the artificial slab; spontaneous local flowers and bushes surround the existing trees.

The restoration of the façade has addressed issues as maintenance, energy saving and efficiency. A synergy of photovoltaic panels, a thermally resistant envelope and a new heating/ hot water system will provide a more efficient, comfortable and sustainable use of the house improving the quality of the inner spaces.

Project Details:

Category: Residential, Refurbishment
Status: 2017, Tender Design Phase
Location: Nuoro, Sardinia
Owner: Private
Site: Existing urban villa
Area: Site 592m2, Outdoor areas 433m2

Architect: MAR office
Team: Renato Juarez Corso, Paola Mongiu
with Daniele Bonetti, Enisa Selmanaj