Private Residence

In the frame of Lunigiana, on the border between Liguria, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, precisely in Soliera Apuana, there is a building dating from the beginning of the last century. Until a few years ago its condition was that of a of a building in the process of aging; especially the ground floor, dedicated to the cellar and storage function showed unmistakable signs of the passage of time. But the love relationship for the building by the family of the owners, residence of the earlier ancestors, proves congenial to bring new life to the artifact. The building that for two sides opens onto a large piece of land is made up of two parts: a main part (the original centenary part) adjoins the road perimeters; the part that is on the north side is definitively a more recent construction (it dates back to the 60s/70s). The restructuring aims to give a housing use to ground floor and to connect this part with the upstairs area by making the building easily accessible avoiding the use of the external staircase. The intervention that originally involved a more invasive redevelopment of the building, brought immediately to light, in the main part, brick arches and architraves, stone walls, vaulted ceiling in terracotta, everything well preserved: for this reason a new project line had to be defined, much more careful for the enhancement of the existing structures. Glimpses, details, furniture unearthed during restructuring are witnesses of construction techniques, materials used as well as customs and traditions of the people who lived there. The enhancement of the existing structure through the conservation of the building envelope in the terms of forms, materials and typology became the main objective. Such respect for the existing structures has thus imposed a very sober approach to everything concerning the decor and the small works of modernization needed. On the ground floor, the line of rooms connects all the areas: the kitchen, the dining room as well as the living-room with the large stone fireplace and sofas and armchairs to relax. Thus, by removing the superfluous additions added over the decades, we finally returned to the proper original configuration of the dwelling.