House with a square window | set architects

The project concerns the architectural completion of an existing building located
in the countryside of the Municipality of Fondi, in southern Lazio. At the time of the
commission, the load-bearing structure, external infill walls, and the laminated timber
roof had already been built.

The clients, a young family, requested a transformation capable of responding to
the needs of contemporary living. The challenge lay in reinterpreting a conventional
spatial and volumetric layout through targeted interventions designed to introduce
discontinuity and generate new spatial relationships.

The interior layout favors open, fluid spaces, reducing partitions to a minimum. The living
area is conceived as a continuous environment, articulated solely by the service core,
which serves as a backdrop for the open kitchen. The existing staircase was freed from
its original enclosing walls and reimagined as a sculptural and lightweight element,
emphasized by a slender stainless steel handrail.
Material selection plays a key role in the project. The continuous microcement flooring,
natural oak surfaces, metallic elements, and light-toned walls work together to create
a warm and welcoming atmosphere, evoking the materials of rural tradition through a
contemporary and measured expression.
The façades have been redefined through the insertion of new architectural elements:
a large square window on the upper floor frames the surrounding landscape, while two
sliding glass doors on the south elevation open the living area to the garden. The side
elevations feature smaller openings to ensure greater privacy.
A white plaster finish helps neutralize the building mass, offering an abstract and
rarefied appearance. The alternation of different textures and slight setbacks around
the openings creates a play of shadows and surfaces, subtly defining a thin, essential
stringcourse.

The garden design reinforces the dialogue between interior and exterior, with concrete
surfaces and a perimeter band of trees that both filter views and protect the house from
the surrounding context.

The project returns to the context a completely renewed building, the result of a careful
restoration process, reinterpreting the archetype of the country house through a
contemporary lens, open to experimentation and cross-disciplinary influences.