Restructuring Architectural Design for Seaside Private House by Antonio Citterio

Since now it is no longer possible to build houses so close to the shore, it was considered as a good thing to take advantage of the extraordinary location of this building to maintain its current position while restructuring it completely. This project was done by Antonio Citterio.

The existing building, well exposed to the south, had a bizarre shape, further complicated by a showy system of pergolas that exaggerated its profile.
The new project had the objective to considerably reduce the presence of architecture on the beach, by simplifying the volume and by covering the ground floor with a coating of granite hewn stones so that the house could better merge with the design of the garden.

Reduced to a whitewashed volume with corners softened by a purposely imperfect treatment of plaster, the two-storey building is shadowed by the thickness of its perimeter walls.

The openings in the façade are so deep that they generate shadows and the sloping shapes of the splays have the job of opening up the views.
The basalt hewn stone basement merges with the design of the patios’ walls that enlarge the house’s plan and generate outdoor space that is closely connected with the indoor distribution of space.

There’s land going up the hill behind the house, and extending for 120 hectares; partially grown with vineyards and olive trees, this estate represents an example of domestic and cultured nature of which the house is just a detail. The plan of the big patios and the relationship with the sea – which is very close, but mitigated by a nearly three-metre difference in height which is contained by a hewn stone wall quite similar to the walls in the project – give the building more appropriate proportions and establish a relationship with its outdoor space which is easier to read.