Paolo Carlesso: CM House

Respect for the history, self-construction and sustainability are the principles that have guided Paul Carlesso in designing of this house in a rural area near Milan.

Paolo Carlesso, Casa CM, Fagnano Olona, Varese

The design of this house in Fagnano Olona, nera Milan, was an opportunity to deal with the problem of constructing in a radical and anti-cyclical way.

The construction was carried out in partial self- made; foundations, installation of perimeter walls have been carried out by specialized companies, the rest of the building was done self-made.

The use materials and constructive ways sustainable, economic and requiring short labor has dictated all the design choices. The walls of the house are wood stuck, the internal structure is a steel frame, the exterior is made of a ventilated facade in ecological fiber cement.

The willingness / necessity of latch on to the history of this specific place, refusing definitely contemporary urban sprawl; orientation and location of settlements have been dictated by rural architecture. Building typology and finishing materials have been taken since the first industrial expansion.

Organization of the lot, poverty of the materials, the decision to build self made are related to the period of colonization of land happened at the hands of immigrants in the mid-1900s.