FD House

Often, for various reasons, the construction of buildings becomes an activity that extends over time beyond predetermined limits. During that time, the building appears as an object under construction, without inhabitants, it has a volumetric shape and partial composition.

In places at high altitudes, where construction times are shorter due to the seasons, they inevitably become prolonged, with long pauses between the different phases. It is actually during these pauses that the building begins to form a relationship with the landscape, remaining in a state of suspension. The landscape accommodates the building like an inanimate object, almost as something just to look at. There is a need to establish with the site a fruitful relationship, so as to make the new element part of it.

The design can work on the phases and the physical implementation. The construction of casa FD will extend over time but already during this intermediary phase it is a feature of the landscape and interacts with it. The yet to be inhabited building is already part of the landscape, it builds a relationship with it and becomes a feature of it. The building with its polygonal plan, orientated towards external references, alters in appearance depending on point of view. Casa FD changes dimension, becomes narrower, wider, changes shape. The overall pattern of the rendering appears and disappears. The white pages with their slight inclination give a feeling of lightness to the wall of stone that is reconfigured into new shapes. Based on a state of “suspension”, of the unfinished architectural work, photographs have been worked on, completing the voids with dark images. In which one can sense the visible landscapes from the inside. Layered effects that suggest the end result. An exercise in temporary “completion” that defines the conclusion of a phase and the beginning of a wait. There are two materials that inform the design: one is the chalky white stones that emerge from the ground on the Andossi pastures that have inspired the rhythm and white cornices; the other the grey stones accumulated from the original shell with their different colours, their lichen, that have become once more a masonry wall.

Casa FD, Madesimo, Italy
Program: single-family house
Architects: Enrico Scaramellini