Ciaböt 

Villa Belpoggio-Paciocchi is a mid-17th century villa located in a hilly suburb of Bologna currently used as an eating-disorders non-profit clinic. Its new owner launched a design competition seeking architects under 31 to design the new guardian house and his eventual family in the villa’s beautiful sloping garden surrounded by protected trees. Programmed dimensions are 80m² house plus a 16m² storage and a €200,000 limited budget.

The role of the occupant and the context suggest a strong connection with nature as well as the existing harmonious neoclassical residence. At the same time, it’s necessary to define privacy boundaries for the occupant, according to the morphology of the area. A conceptual solution consists of focusing the openings on the opposite side of the villa, facing the southern landscape and permitting good use of daylight too.

The resulting design is a massive lot-shaped basement and a timber mono-pitched roof structure on the top. A polycarbonate skin covers all the dry wooden frame maintaining a clear geometry and widely providing dynamic illumination from the southern curtain wall and from the windowed roof. On the northern blind facade there are the only access points to the house.