Italian Cultural Institute of Dakar | MOST Monti Studio

« These buildings dwell the man. He dwells there, and however he doesn’t live in them, if to live a place is meant only to have his own house «
M. Heidegger

The Italian Institute of Culture needed a home.

The intervention on a villa of the 1970s is the object of project between the resistant part, Senegal, and the new present part, Italy.

Let’s «dwell» two distant cultures in a space. Like a new family, a new home in which everything must «live».

Here is the meaning of «dwell»: to coexist, to accept that a part of Senegal is affected by Italy and a part of Italy is affected by Senegal.

The facades are a texture woven by the zigzags of Missoni and the typical colors of Senegal clothes.

The hand-drawn rhombus with pencil and scotch is a clear memory to that handicraft of Italian and Senegalese tailors.

The entrance and garden porch, typical example of Italian architecture, is inhabited by local geometric shapes.

The wood used in an artisanal way, each piece is unique and nailed to the structure seamlessly, it is a tribute to the resourcefulness of the hand compared to technology.

The colors overtake the house until they invade the neighborhood showing the  -true- culture of the institute: to dwell!