The nameless buildings that characterize every place on this planet have aroused the interest of designers as much as the environment and its characteristics. It is precisely the environmental characteristics and the cultural-geographical context that have influenced for centuries what is commonly defined as “vernacular architecture”, a fundamental basis for the development of a bioclimatic architecture which is designed by the climate. However, this awareness towards the environment has gradually been lost and is currently being rediscovered through sustainable and climate-sensitive design with different expressive outcomes. The paper aims to critically analyze the Casa Solare by Studio Albori, built in Vens in Valle d’Aosta between 2010 and 2011, as a manifesto of an approach that celebrates the everyday life of living spaces, created in symbiosis with the environment in which they are immersed. Studio Albori’s thirty-year experience focuses on the practical aspects of design, physical aspects, thermal and bioclimatic aspects. The Casa Solare, as its name suggests, is designed to make the most of solar input in a specific environmental context such as the mountain one. Although apparently vernacular, the house is immediately different from the context, thanks also to its anomalous height of three floors, as well as a heavily glazed south façade. It is therefore a reading of tradition in terms of constructive intelligence, of bioclimatic knowledge as a basis, of the relationship with the context which is the generating reason for the forms that are a consequence of this adaptation to the environment. The invitation of this approach is to investigate what has been ignored for a long time, starting from the importance of the true nature of building, in its maximum expression, materializing not only in a design phase, but in a real laboratory of construction. This is a reflection that arises from the creation of buildings and furnishing accessories in a way that we can define as artisanal, on a small scale. A project that can be controlled in all its parts and that is the result of a continuous discussion with the client and an in depth reading of his/her specific needs, be they of a cultural, social, or economic nature. If naive is comparable to “primitive”, it is the primordial strength of simplicity, albeit simple only in appearance.
CASA SOLARE, STUDIO ALBORI. IL RAPPORTO QUOTIDIANO TRA AMBIENTE E NECESSITÀ ABITATIVE
Maria Canepa
2023-01-01
Abstract
The nameless buildings that characterize every place on this planet have aroused the interest of designers as much as the environment and its characteristics. It is precisely the environmental characteristics and the cultural-geographical context that have influenced for centuries what is commonly defined as “vernacular architecture”, a fundamental basis for the development of a bioclimatic architecture which is designed by the climate. However, this awareness towards the environment has gradually been lost and is currently being rediscovered through sustainable and climate-sensitive design with different expressive outcomes. The paper aims to critically analyze the Casa Solare by Studio Albori, built in Vens in Valle d’Aosta between 2010 and 2011, as a manifesto of an approach that celebrates the everyday life of living spaces, created in symbiosis with the environment in which they are immersed. Studio Albori’s thirty-year experience focuses on the practical aspects of design, physical aspects, thermal and bioclimatic aspects. The Casa Solare, as its name suggests, is designed to make the most of solar input in a specific environmental context such as the mountain one. Although apparently vernacular, the house is immediately different from the context, thanks also to its anomalous height of three floors, as well as a heavily glazed south façade. It is therefore a reading of tradition in terms of constructive intelligence, of bioclimatic knowledge as a basis, of the relationship with the context which is the generating reason for the forms that are a consequence of this adaptation to the environment. The invitation of this approach is to investigate what has been ignored for a long time, starting from the importance of the true nature of building, in its maximum expression, materializing not only in a design phase, but in a real laboratory of construction. This is a reflection that arises from the creation of buildings and furnishing accessories in a way that we can define as artisanal, on a small scale. A project that can be controlled in all its parts and that is the result of a continuous discussion with the client and an in depth reading of his/her specific needs, be they of a cultural, social, or economic nature. If naive is comparable to “primitive”, it is the primordial strength of simplicity, albeit simple only in appearance.
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