LM House

CASTIONE ANDEVENNO, ITALY - 2008

The project was about the realization of a single-family house starting from sediments and foundations of a pre-existing wide garage. Following the requests, NCB has used a pragmatic approach: an architectural tower volume, in harmony with the surrounding site and mountainous aspects, considering that the field is placed on a crag of Castione Andevenno mountains, facing the valley and the Stelvio Street on the southern side.

The awareness of the sight, the Valtellina vernacular architecture references and also the model of great master such as Luigi Caccia Dominioni (like his Ezio Vanoni public library in Morbegno), have inspired the lines and material selection, since the building comes to life through two vertical and parallel stone blades which enclose the internal spaces, plagged with windows walls on the south and with a more durable Larchwood slats system on the north side.

This kind of solution was also useful to satisfy the building code, which imposed a pitched roof, by the realization of a wooden beams rooftop, insulated and covered with light grey Rheinzing, but at the same time avoiding the eaves ledge effect beyond the wall profile.

It appears  clear and evident the inspiration to the forts watchtower model displaced along  Sondrio and Teglio mountains. The two main walls in Valmalenco Dorato ashlar are marked with some wide vertical openings and with little loopholes which are the result of the interior layout, generating an anticlassical rhythmic punctuation of solids and voids gained from the local tradition in maso construction, where perforations becomes mediators between functional internal needs and external environmental conditions (sunlight, wind exposure, landscape organization).

In order to emphasize the building compactness, even vertical elements such as the outdoor staircase and the south guyed balconies have been designed with the idea of light and hanged additional parts, nearly temporary.