Clara`s House - sparch|it studio

sparch|it studio
architettura e progetto urbano
via Aosta, 19 • 09126 Cagliari – I • T/F +39 070 300 884 • www.sparch.it
Clara’s House
Refurbishment of a small detached villa
dating from the 1930s
reliminary, final and executive design
P
and project management
ustomer:
C
Private
lace:
P
Cagliari (Province of Cagliari)
roject size:
P
Plot area: 193 m2
Gross built area: 405 m2
Built volume: 1,210 m3
roject budget:
P
EUR 380,000
imeline:
T
2003-2006
hief project designer:
C
Salvatore Peluso
esign team:
D
Roberta Milia, Roberto Lallai, Miriam Manconi
onsultants:
C
HVAC systems: Franco Pes
Electrical wiring: Giancarlo Patteri
S afety coordinator:
Fabrizio Cosmi
A typical building of the New City (the name given to the urban expansion of “modern” Cagliari,
planned in the early decades of the 20th century),
this small villa sited in Via Pitzolo was the outcome
of various building phases between 1924 and 1954.
Its layout was that of a terraced house, narrow on
the street and backyard sides - albeit with a comparatively broad span of 7.20 m, but with considerable depth of the plot, almost 30 m. The front
and back rooms, facing respectively the front and
back gardens, enjoyed a strongly privileged position compared to the middle ones, which opened
onto a narrow internal side courtyard and were
arranged along a corridor. However, the house
presented one distinctive element: a stairway so
imposing – as to size, relationship with the other
interior spaces, construction method, details - as
to reveal that in its designer’s intentions the house
was to be – as defined in some documents - a
“mansion”. In other words, a “small villa”, instead
of a simple terraced house.
The renovation project was quite radical but also
aimed at safeguarding the original characteristics
of the building, its key typological and spatial features. Moreover, as Clara was deeply attached to
the house where she grew up, some of the original
details deeply set in her memory reaffirmed their
physical presence.
On the ground floor, where the scarcity of natural
lighting in the middle rooms was more acutely felt,
the partition walls were demolished, and an initial,
cosier conversation space was created around the
windows facing onto the front garden.
This space is directly linked to a single large living
area, finally brimming with natural light, thanks to
two concurring factors: the opening of the wall
sparch|it studio
architettura e progetto urbano
via Aosta, 19 • 09126 Cagliari – I • T/F +39 070 300 884 • www.sparch.it
looking towards the yard, treated as a sort of Zen
garden only separated by a large window; and the
direct linking with the stairwell, which receives a
major source of light from the top.
On the first floor, the old ceiling was lowered and
some useless structures were demolished, thus
turning the attic into a second habitable floor, with
complete restructuring of the roofing.
The existing roofing was quite bizarre as a consequence of a succession of building phases. In order,
the roof comprised: a double-pitched roof with
crosswall, a small roof terrace in the middle portion, a half pavilion with longitudinal wall and lastly,
another roof terrace, inaccessible. The entire roof
area was reorganised and redesigned, with two
roof terraces at the two ends and a pavilion roof,
longitudinal and parallel to the internal courtyard,
in the central portion. The roof structure was conceived to be light, in iron with wooden planking.
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sparch|it studio
architettura e progetto urbano
via Aosta, 19 • 09126 Cagliari – I • T/F +39 070 300 884 • www.sparch.it
As part of the refurbishment, a small independent
apartment on two levels was obtained, on the first
and second floor of the street front. (Clara has a
young niece she is very fond of).
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