Podere Molino dei Ciliegi

“In Umbria, more than elsewhere, what was built in the rural landscape has been preserved; in this way we can talk about an archeology that is also future” (F. Farinelli – University of Bologna).

Re-inhabiting rural architecture is always a fascinating subject, very topical, because it assumes the complex purpose of “turning old to new”. My project, for the lawyers Lemme-Anselmo, implies a functional rehabilitation focused on the clear discrimination between historical pre-existence and contemporary language, possible conservation and needed renovation.

Project – Realization: 2012-16 ('Turnkey' service by coordinating local and foreign workers).

Genius loci: The existing rural building, isolated typology, was entirely renovated and freed from the accretions; probably dated back to the early twentieth century, it is protected by the Soprintendenza of Perugia. It is located in Podere Il Molino, in the municipality of San Venanzo (TR), in the suburb of Rotecastello, near Faena river.

The project: The elementary morphological configuration places alongside the original unit a single volume, in view of a critical-proactive recovery of the existing rural type, typical of Umbrian hilly country: the slope country-house.

A minimal and pure contemporary language was selected in the stylistic elements, to evoke a rural taste with modern heart; silent but living additions, so that the place could renovate its own energy by the protection of its main historical and micro-landscape features.

Therefore the pool has a simple and linear form, not exceeding the projection of the new house’s shape. It was conceived as an “old country wash-house” (conceptually similar to a tank/drinking-trough), inserted in a very calibrated and mimetic way into the surrounding natural landscape, even in memory of ancient local routes which led to the river’s bank.