AM House / Giampaolo Mazzon

Architects: Giampaolo Mazzon
Location: Via G.L. Bernini, 3, 31100 Treviso TV, Italy
Area: 151.0 sqm
Year: 2011
Photographs: Francesco Castagna

Structural Engineer: Andrea Rigato
Mechanical/Electrical/Hydraulic Engineer: Stefano Melato
Contractor: Ingegneria delle Costruzioni Srl
Mechanical Services: Idroclima Roncato Snc
Electrical Services: Argento Impianti Snc
Windows And Woodwork: Falegnameria Longato Snc
Titanium Zinc Cladding: Rheinzink SpA CLT Lattonerie Snc
Steelwork: Comet Bilibio Snc
Stonework: FB Marmi Snc
Floor Finishes: Stefano Pravato

From the architect. HOUSE AM _ The project broadens an existing small house situated in a residential area developed in the ’70s: isolated houses of various shape, disorderly, looking closely to each other, over the hedges of leftover gardens.

The house shows surprisingly the fortunate presence of a back garden, to a certain extent, extraordinarily intimate compared to the street side. Here the new volumes find their location, lying on the grass.

The wood coating, the white plaster and the base walls in exposed concrete reproduce some of the formal elements typical of the houses of the 70s, which were referring to some own traits of the contemporary Alpine architecture, taking on, in those years, a popular diffusion also outside their sphere of belonging.

The reuse of these materials, deliberately inspired from some of the best-known experiences of the modern movement, has the aim to approach the existing house without creating new fragments and working on a principle of extension instead of a pure juxtaposition. In this way, what has been added cannot be separated from what was already there, and this explains its presence.

I imagined that the skin of the building could function as a device capable of providing clear information to the surrounding. The skin is supposed to be a kind of shield against the curiosity of neighbors.

According to this logic the façade shows an intermingling of rejecting materials and wide inclusive openings. The metal sheet of the roof that turns up on the façade interprets this defensive act; the terrace, which is thrown at its side, is there to mitigate that arrogance. This continuous game of alternations is the rule of the project.