Archiplan Studio Restore an Old Italian Home with Modern Interventions

Stone walls and barrel ceilings make this project from Trequanda in Italy a pretty unique one. Titled Effegi House, the designers were asked to restore the old building and turn it into a modern home.

The Italian architecture firm, Archiplanstudio, were contacted by the owners. According to them, the building required “a series of little and precise interventions”.

Works were completed in 2018, with the project being lead by architects Diego Cisi, and Stefano Gorni Silvestrini. The result is a 376.74-square-foot (35-square-meter) rustic abode with modern fixtures and fittings.

From the architects: “The restoring intervention involves a little building, located at the border of the consolidated urban fabric of Trequanda, a small village in a hilly Tuscan area, the so-called ‘creste senesi’. The project includes a series of little and precise interventions, which redefine detailed aspects of the building.

The internal courtyard was located at a different height from the entrance border threshold, respectively located on the street margin and at the entrance of the house. This topographic location became an opportunity to redesign the soil and the open space. At the ground floor, the imperfect squareness of the longitudinal walls is regularized by two lateral sittings, which are able to absorb the spatial discontinuity with their extension.

At the first floor, the wardrobe has this task, both absolving a containing function and transforming into a space for WC and shower, in a light visual relationship with the bedroom thanks to the rarefaction of the wall. The sink becomes an isolated element in the room and its use allows the visual relationship with the surrounding landscape.

For more small houses check out this 1930s Italian villa that gets converted into contemporary home. Or, Tess and JJ’s House, a small home built for modern living in South Yarra. See all small houses.

Photos © Davide Galli