Project: Ca’ Inua House Renovation
Architects: Ciclostile Architettura
Location: Medelana, Italy
Area: 400 m2
Year: 2019
Photographs: Fabio Mantovani
Kainua is the ancient Etruscan city that stood near the current town of Marzabotto. Ca’ is a reference to the typical toponyms of mountain farmhouses. Inua is an Inuit language word that means “the essence of all things”, it is a spiritual concept that unites all beings and that is the principle of harmony between the living. The phonetic form of the Inuit term is the farm logo.
The new construction is a volume in stone and wood that has its roots in the mountain with which it forms a whole; a solitary object that expresses an intense relationship with the primordial energy and the geology of the mountainous landscape. The beauty and grandeur of the landscape in which the project is inserted required a delicate and careful approach, the new building had to present itself as a timeless object, one of the elements of the natural landscape.
The house and workspace of the artistic duo Panem et Circenses, obtained from the demolition and reconstruction of the old farmer’s house, develops on two levels, the ground floor is partially embedded in the ground to strengthen this building/nature link; a graft that changes internal/external perception by bringing the gaze line closer to the ground.
The new stone wall on the ground floor (rebuilt on the footprint of the old wall), a connecting element between the new house and the renovated barn. The new portion, with the structure in X-LAM panels, overlooks the main front only on the first floor, gracefully inserting itself in a strongly connoted landscape. The covering is in burnt wood, an ancient technique that we find in our Apennines but also in very distant places all over the world, a technique inextricably linked to the territory but projected everywhere, an inclusive and welcoming common language.
Internally the dialectic between “hard” surfaces (the concrete of the basement portion of the living area, the mosaics of the bathrooms) and “soft” surfaces (fir wood used as floors and coverings) recalls the essentiality and austerity of the place. Each element is optimized to respond to a need that honestly denounces itself through its material choice.
The internal distribution, dictated by the reading of the place and its intrinsic characteristics, requires us to make the most of the existing potential. The service rooms are all located on the north front and have small windows while in the south the living area/kitchen on the ground floor and the bedrooms on the upper floor have large openings.
The openings on the ground floor are simply shielded by the overhang of the first floor while those in the bedrooms are equipped with a shielding system. These openings, in addition to maximizing the energy supply in the cold seasons and preventing direct radiation in the hot ones, offer a breathtaking view of the valley.
The whole house is insulated with a very thick wood fiber coat that allows us to use as heating / cooling only an air system powered mostly by photovoltaic panels located on the roof of the barn to mitigate its visual impact. Rainwater is collected in tanks and reused for watering the fields while the purification plant consists of a phytodepuration that works thanks to two ponds adjacent to the Ca’ Inua House.
The barn has been renovated with mainly structural interventions and equipped with all the basic plant equipment. Today it is used as a warehouse for agricultural activities, over time a receptive structure will be created to welcome visitors.
