Houses of Cards, Italy
義大利 紙牌屋
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Houses of Cards by ELASTICOFarm are an inhabited experiment, the outcome of the architect’s exploration of the expressive possibilities of a traditional material, used in an unforeseen way. Deliberately dissonant from the surrounding context, they rise two floors above ground in a residential context, composed of anonymous single-family houses, all respectfully aligned. Houses of Cards are in Torrazza Piemonte, in the province of Turin, in the north-western part of Italy.
The two residences both share the same structural solution, developed around an overlapping arrangement of twenty large granite slabs, connected by interlocking cuts and metal elements and composed together with similar slabs, made of colored concrete. Additional partitions, in contrast to the hard structure, are made of wood. A solution that emerges vigorously in the dull urban context, also as a reaction to the monotonous urbanization. The twofold result immediately shows itself as a fragment of a research, as can be read in the clear distinction that exists between one residence and another. If, in fact, the first house is the result of the experimentation of a scheme based on an orthogonal grid, a hypothesis that immediately revealed some structural limits, the parti of the second house relies on a radial matrix, which later turned out to be considerably more performative. The spatial solution, to which the alternating colors contribute, produces a series of consequences that reverberate from the interiors to the definition of the external forms.
Within the game of superimpositions made from large granite slabs, the houses, jokingly called Cat House and Dog House by the designer, give rise to profoundly different spatial configurations. “In the Cat House the regular arrangement of the panels conveys rigor and produces a sense of closure and finiteness of the space; the structural elements appear as fragments inside the rooms, as formal accents capable of playing with light and color. In the Dog House, on the other hand, the radial structure of the first level contrasts with the necessary irregularity in their arrangement on the other two levels, hinting at an unfinished system and spaces that can change and evolve,” said Stefano Pujatti.
“If the granite and concrete structural elements convey a sense of permanence, the wooden partitions let one perceive the possibility that time will lead to their transformation and potential dissolution. The building contains and foresees the image of ruin, the only things that will be able to resist will reveal the essence of the project.”
Principal Architects:Stefano Pujatti, Valeria Brero, Serena Nano, Daniele Almondo, Andrea Rosada
Character of Space:Residential
Total Floor Area:200 ㎡ for each of the two houses
Principal Materials:granite and concrete
Location:Torrazza Piemonte, Italy
Photos:Atelier XYZ
Text:ELASTICOFarm
Collator:IW Editorial Department
主要建築師:Stefano Pujatti, Valeria Brero, Serena Nano, Daniele Almondo, Andrea Rosada
空間性質:住宅
空間面積:兩房各200平方公尺
主要建材:花崗岩和混凝土
座落位置:義大利托拉扎皮耶蒙泰
影像:Atelier XYZ
文字:ELASTICOFarm
整理:傢飾編輯部