Renovation and extension of a rural family house in San Giovanni in Persiceto, Bologna
Little Brick House is a renovation project we did in 2019 on a Persiceto rural house, a typical sample of the of the mid-twentieth century Bolognese countryside house typology. The clients are Ellen, Michele, Tommaso and Nicola, a young family who decided to move away from the historic center of Bologna and build a house to suit them in a quieter area of the city.
A project as such is a type of commission that an architect may face several times in their professional life, when building a project for a member of their family. Seems simple, but actually a process of great responsibility and involves a deep reflection on issues intrinsic to the profession.
Valorization of the local typological heritage: The house that learns from time and context
If an architecture is not used, it falls into ruin. For this reason, the first challenge in a renovation is to adapt it to the contemporary without altering its essence. The house was built in 1954 with a brick structure, wooden roof, central staircase, three floors and two rooms per floor; a simple, austere and very common typology in the area. The first necessary intervention was the structural consolidation of the building, with only minor modifications to the distribution of the spaces.
The needs of a family today are different from those of a family almost 70 years ago. The way of living in the house has changed radically. We decided that the house needed an extension on the ground floor, a newly built element, with completely different characteristics that would allow all the functions that were missing in the original construction to be implemented. The clients needed a large space on the ground floor, so that the kitchen and the living room were no longer two spaces, but one single space where daytime life takes place. This way they could have visual continuity with the garden and let the children play and explore without losing sight of them completely.
Adapting spaces to contemporary living: The house that learns from its inhabitants
Ellen is Swedish and Michele is Italian. Both have a different culture of living and their new house had to reflect both. If Michele felt represented in the traditional local house, we had the opportunity to transfer elements typical of Swedish architectural culture to the newly built extension, such as large windows with natural pine joinery where it is customary to place a table lamp on the mantelpiece during the evening hours, or the use of exposed brick as an exterior finish. This play of duality also facilitated the recognition of the new and the pre-existing.
Energy and technological adaptation: The house that learns from the climatic emergency
When faced with a renovation or building project it is inevitable to renew our commitment to the environment; every decision has a positive or negative impact. A 70 year old building inevitably needs to be adapted, so we decided to be radical in this. The house had to tend as far as possible to passive house standards, enhancing the thermal inertia of the container, seeking the maximum efficiency of the installations and using wherever possible natural materials and built by local producers.
