Casa al Granatello

The building, including the renovated apartment, is part of a very important historical and artistic contest of Portici (Naples). The contest includes: the Royal Bourbon Site of Portici (including Royal Palace, the Royal Park, the public gardens, the Palazzo d’Elboeuf, the area and the buildings for the royal hunting and the brick and tile factory called “Petriera del Granatello”. Today the all area and the buildings are listed form the Government Department responsible for the historical buildings of Naples. The building, originally known as “Casa di Ignazio Imparato”, today called “Villa Giamburri”, was bought from King Carlo of Bourbon around the 1738-40 and transformed into the “Regie Fornaci”, for the production of hand crafted clay including: “riggiole” (tiles), bricks, roof tiles, vessels, etc… The Factory was composed by a ground floor (were the production took place), including warehouse, furnaces, tanks for clay works, and by a first floor, that was the house of the manufacturer. The original appearance of the building has been changing inevitably during the years especially from a volumetric point of view. After the Italian unification, the factory passed under the state property, than divided into smaller units and sold to privates, since then the original structure changed without any organic project, just following the needs of the different inhabitants. Since then the look of the building started to degrade until few years ago when started the urbanization of the area and the restoration of the building. Refurbishing an apartment in this amazing contest and historical background has been very challenging. The project was the result of a continuous dialogue between client needs and the listed building authority requirements to preserve the historical and artistic value of the structure. To ensure the success of the project it’s been decided to create a non-invasive structure between the floor level and the preserved existing roof. The idea is to take advantage of the existing volume of the house without losing the double height and to valorize the view of the fantastic restored existing wooden roof, creating new spaces in constant dialogue with the existing floor level. Now in the new loft are: a small office/reading room, guests bedroom and bathroom, another small bathroom, and the private dressing room attached to the master bedroom. The rooms of the loft take light from the stainless steel and opal glass windows that open on the kitchen’s double height. The spaces of the existing floor level has been preserved and reused as: a kitchen with a central island and a complete fitted wall, a large living room and a separated dining room; the kitchen and the dining room have both wide openings into a common existing terrace. To access the structure of the new loft have been designed three stairways. The first one, at the entrance, bringing to the guest bedroom, has an helical shape done in steel and timber and ends with a curved railing. The second satirway, that also has the function to hide the closet-wardrobe, is situated in the corridor of the sleeping area, accessing to the bedrooms and to the second entrance of the guest room; it has been designed in timber and stone blocks with the first step completely in marble. The third one is the master bedroom internal staircase that opens to the inner private dressing room. The materials used for the project are: warm natural oak timber, marble beige and – as in most of the projects of the Studio Ricciardi Architetti – the traditional hand painted tiles that color the kitchen paving, chosen in the attempt to connect the modern project and furniture to the original structure and its history. We tried to give new meanings to existing forms and shapes, in a respectful dialogue between past and present.