The architectural firm GAMP! has finished planning two Villas in Montefiascone. Two houses, one for the clients themselves, and one for their friends to use during weekends and holidays. Three houses – two above ground and a third underground – which were designed on the renovation of two tuff buildings dedicated to the deposit of agricultural machinery and from which the sediment was inspired, stand in the Tuscia land-scape, a gentle countryside, dotted with tall oaks. The architects explain that “the idea was to imagine simple, almost archetypical, houses, which would blend harmoniously with the almost intact landscape of the Tuscia without altering its balance, retracing an established image, without giving up on the characteristics of a modern project.”

Though spatially fluid, the architecture is rigorous in its functional organization, and is able to open the interior space to the exterior space thanks to an accurate positioning of the windows, as well as the predisposition of spaces towards outdoor life. The first two houses present a pitched roof, the third has a garden roof; in all three the existence of a chimney is made evident by its dimensions. “These are apparently traditional houses, though we have played with their geometries through slight deformations and through the way they rest upon the ground; particularly in the light blue house the planimetric deformation, which is visible in the living room, make the space ever changing and lacking symmetry”.

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

Wanting the houses to fit harmoniously into the landscape brought the architects to choose traditional materials, terracotta, trowelled plaster, travertine and stone for the exterior; stoneware, ceramic and wood for the interior , guaranteeing durability and easy maintenance, “and especially giving the architecture the capacity to absorb the passing of time, a characteristic we like to think belongs to good architecture”.

The use of traditional material corresponds to a not so usual positioning of them: the recycled terracotta tiles completely cover the smallest house, from the walls to the ceiling, in the light blue house the wainscoting climbs up the walls; on the in-side, stoneware and ceramic come up the walls and fireplaces to draw translucent diaphragms and volumes. The surrounding landscape is dotted with simple metal gazeboes, which define a sort of hypothetical buildings, “a counter alter to the commodity of the internal living space”.

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

PHOTOS BY Lorenzo Zandri

Collaborators: Arch. Roberta Nocco