In a villa’s cellar on the hills around Florence - Pian dei Giullari - we tried to solve a problem through an housing experiment: to convert a space composed by just a room in a proper flat trying not to make the mistake of dividing rooms sharply by walls - taking light, room or air off and reducing the visual perception of the whole size of the volume. Also, we tried not to leave a unique and united space - always hard to live - composed just by areas with different functions but only ideally divided by imaginary lines; like a loft.
The main talent of an architect is the ability of solving, with only a sign, as many problems as possible. The solution - the sign itself - can be formal or technical; the important thing is to reach an architectural sum: “faire d’une pierre deux coups”; “prendere due piccioni con una fava” or also “to kill two birds with one stone”. In this case the sign coincide with the project, with the design. Here the solution is a cube that divides and defines spaces. You should not think about it as an artwork: “architecture is not an art because “everything serving a purpose must be excluded from the reign of art.” (Adolf Loos). The cube is a means, after all, together technical and formal, to reach the goal of converting an old villa’s cellar in a flat where spaces are enjoyable, independent and defined. That was the client’s challenge, in fact.
