renovated villa from the 60s is embedded within the vineyards of italy

monovolume architecture + design completed a complex renovation of an old villa from the 1960s located on the hills in the south-west side of the province of bolzano, italy, along the renowned wine route, amidst vineyards and small forests. in the 1950s and 1960s, after the second world war, many citizens moved from the city center to these hills to enjoy greater peace and an exclusive view of the surrounding peaks, the scenery in which ‘villa EB’ is set.

images by giovanni de sandre

‘villa EB’, before being renovated by monovolume architecture + design, had high living standards and was built with top-quality materials and finishes. however, all the limitations of a house designed according to the canons of the time were exposed, for example, having a very closed envelope, with a very low ratio between glass surfaces and solid walls, with few views of the landscape and very low ceilings.

the new owners wanted their house to be embedded with the garden surrounding the house and the nearby woods. the roots for this project were blending in the dwelling with the surrounding landscape without sacrificing modern lines and large windows that allow the view to be enjoyed from different angles. the spatial expedients such as the increase in the net heights on each floor, the remodeling of the partition walls in the living area in order to create large living spaces on the ground floor without losing the form/functional relationship between the various areas (kitchen and study), are linked with the choice of external materials. these materials are the ‘mönch und nonne’ tiled roof in which the lower ‘nun’ cup is interlocked with the upper ‘monk’ cup, the ‘pfitscher gneis’ natural stone walls, the exposed wood cladding, and the architectural elements in earth brown metal sheet.

inside, a spiral staircase in metal and wood that connects the first and second floors is topped by a large oval skylight, clearly visible in the zenith view as a symbiotic relationship between light and matter. outside, glassed façades with large sliding doors on both floors provide access to the outside from almost every corner of the house; on the second floor to the covered terrace and on the first floor to the garden that surrounds and wraps around the house up to the ‘infinity pool’ facing the valley that leads from bolzano to merano.

project info:

name: house EB

architects: monovolume architecture + design

design team: luca di censo, laura tolotti, diego preghenella

location: bolzano, italy

photography: giovanni de sandre

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