Renovation of a 4-story house | Alessandro Fantetti

The building is part of the minor along roadside curtain typical of Vicenza historic centre. The body consists of an undivided rectangular space, about 10 meters by 3 meters wide, arranged on four levels. Access from the street is only pedestrian, there is a private garden at the back.
The project finds its core in the steel framed “castle” that crosses into all levels in the central part, fulfilling different needs. The metal structure forms the earthquake-resistant stiffener for the entire building. In it, the staircase and the elevator that connect the four levels run through. Vertical connections serve as a partition between the street-facing rooms and the main rooms facing the backyard.
Originally the darkest, the central part is brightened up thru a glazed floor insert, present on all levels, and the addition of two roof windows. Natural light diffuses down to the ground floor, reflecting in the parapets and glass door of both staircase and elevator.
The openings to the garden, doubled in size, make the transition between interior and exterior fluid by connecting the green of nature, the terracotta of the pavement and historic walls to the dominant white of the inside declined in different materials and shades.