The building was originally conceived as a simple block; during the design process, however, it underwent a series of "shifts" and "superimpositions" until it featured a double height "closed courtyard" lit from above with a twin skylight. Opening onto the "closed courtyard" is the first floor corridor. This is the distributive and structural axis of the building; all the rooms of the house are organised around this central element of the design. The requirements of the master plan mean that the house has only two free sides (to the south and the north). The building has been divided into three levels, each with a different function and layout (utilities, living area, bedrooms): the second floor houses the living spaces, and these connect through wide openings to the internal garden, which has been designed as a hortus conclusus.
This interconnection is absent on the side facing the street; this is "closed" front designed as a backdrop for the hortus conclusus. The "closure" is indicated by the predominance of filled spaces and by the shielding/puncturing, which allows the surrounding landscape to be glimpsed from inside and means that the exterior does not reveal the organisation of the internal space. The construction and architectural definition has incorporated traditional, local materials; the colour scheme as well is typical of the location. White and dark grey plaster (traditional in the area) has been used for the exterior, and striped, polished travertine for the cladding, as well as for the internal and external flooring in the living areas up to the garden. (Travertine was chosen both because it is durable and similar in colour to Modica stone, which is widely used in the area around Catania.) The paving in direct contact with the ground (outside and in the basement) is made from lava stone, as if to reassert symbolically the tectonics of the area.
Casa SD', detached family home, Belpasso (CT)
Architects: Prestileo e Bianco Architetti Associati (Giovanni Battista Prestileo, Alessandra Bianco)
Design: 1999
Realization: 2008
