Six houses in the barn

Architects Gino Guarnieri and Roberto Mascazzini created a performing grid-shell for a new residential building for six housing units that replace an old abandoned barn in the outskirts of Sesto San Giovanni, Milan.

Architects imagined that a new casing holding some of the demolition materials, the solid brick of the walls and porphyric floors, could have new life, so as to enclose the new building within a “historical” shell. The building is placed in the same site, with the same size, shape and materials as it used to be.

The intervention lot is located on the edge of an ancient rural village, now absorbed in the suburbs of Sesto San Giovanni, ouside Milan. The settlement today presents a very complex morphology, with buildings of different typologies collected in short succession and connected to each other by covered walkways and porches. All around there are densely populated residential neighborhoods from the early 70s, and major road infrastructures. The farmlant where the barn belonged, no longer exists, as well as the activities that were held inside in the past.

The crushed material is included in a thickness of a few centimeters, held in place by a metal net of Corten steel. It is distributed uniformly in the ceiling and walls, creating a sort of “legacy” aesthetic, despite the transformation it was subjected to. The resulting volume is very compact, it almost looks like a single material, divided into symmetrical copper structures that host all the openings, where six aligned units are placed on three levels. The openings do not compromise the integrity and strength of the building, and they are hidden by shutters that open mechanically serving as shelter against sun and rain.

The particular construction technique allowed the elimination of the usual constructive elements: channels, downspouts, window sills, trims and shutters, allowing simple construction and clean lines. The legacy of recycled materials is a key point for the efficiency of the energy consumption, thanks to the perfoming materials used, the ventilated space. The compact stone mass slows down the interior heating during summer, an preserves it as much as possible during winter. The building has no flue and does not emit waste resulting from combustion processes. Cooling and heating are guaranteed by radial panels integrated in wooden floors, with energy supplied by heat pumps, while the rainwater flows along the corrugated sheets under the crushed layer is collected at the foot of the building and coinvogliata in tanks and used for irrigation, eliminating the building envelope maintenance. 

Six houses in the barn, Sesto San Giovanni, Milan
Program: residential building
Architects: Gino Guarnieri, Roberto Mascazzini
Team: Jacopo Agnolazza, Matteo Polesso, Valentina Sonzogni  Davide Tricoli, Marco Zanini
Total area: 1,200 sqm
Living area: 900 sqm
Cost: 1.400.000 €
Completion: 2015