LDA.iMDA elevates gabled roof house over an orchard in italy

LDA.iMDA was tasked with designing a house suited for the clients’ hobby of horitculture, a residence aptly named ‘la casa nell’orto’ in san miniato, italy. keeping their vegetable garden intact, yet having a shelter in its vicinity, was the main goal. the architects designed the house referencing the typical cable roof typology, shaping the house like the traditional ‘child’s drawing of a house’. placing contemporary architecture in a fragile, vegetated context created new relationships between the built form and the landscape. 

the architects lifted up the whole floor on posts to reduce the building’s impact on the landscape.  this also enabled them to allocate the house’s hydraulic services on the ground. the building stands among the client’s garden, connecting them with the surrounding nature and keeping them close to their hobby.

the extruded volume features glazed openings on both ends, bringing in natural light and cross ventilation to the building. the white, seemingly monolithic building, has a continuous external coating of an ecological polyolefin sheet with high solar reflectance. this structural technology usually found in greenhouses was adapted for a living condition.

the internal floor covering is made out of prefabricated, self-supporting slabs, which are made of larch wood, polystyrene and fir wood layers. they are covered in an anti-infiltration, water resistant protective layer to host any type of activity on its surface.

by experimenting with both shape and context, the project is a part of LDA.iMdA ’s ongoing research. the architects are investigating ‘how the figurative synthesis of an architecture is often recurrent in the architect’s work, and how it can be an important element of investigation in finding answers or models for a contemporary fluid and dynamic society.’

project info:

architects: LDA.iMDA

location: san miniato, italy

area: 84.0 m2

project year: 2019

photographs: medulla studio

manufacturers: mapei, adobe, maxon, autodesk

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: cristina gomez | designboom