Project Portfolio
Nature and relaxation: a villa immersed in the landscape
reading time: 4 minutes
Villa Leonida, designed by architect Giuseppe Passaro of GPaSTUDIO, is a house surrounded by nature with no visual barriers, creating a sense of continuity between the local materials and those of the building. This is partly thanks to porcelain stoneware from the Mystone and Grande collections, which are used to clad the facade
The villa is located in Ventoso, a hamlet with just under 2,000 inhabitants belonging to the municipality of Scandiano (Reggio Emilia).
Villa Leonida, designed by architect Giuseppe Passaro of GPaSTUDIO, was created to meet the needs of a family with a passion for nature and open spaces that dreamed of a residence without visual barriers to enjoy the surrounding landscape.
Observing the context and morphology of the area, the design respects the rules dictated by nature: a large stone, the basement part of the building, brakes and supports a structure cantilevered above it, preventing it from sliding down into the valley. Here you can admire an enchanting view of the trees’ colours and slender shapes.
And thanks to the hill’s gentle slope, you can also enjoy a beautiful panoramic view of Scandiano and the valley floor.
The part of the home located in the basement is dedicated to the service area and is made entirely of reinforced concrete (sandblasted and polished), while the living area is located on the upper level: a large open space with a double volume in which an iron spiral staircase leads up to a library-loft that extends into the kitchen, which is also full-height.
The project is designed to have clear, sharp contrasts, seeking both a balance with the valley and the hill to which it belongs and continuity between indoor and outdoor spaces. “A formal, spatial and material contrast, as well as a separation between natural and artificial lights,” explains Passaro. “This was the common thread of a design idea based on the concept of simplicity. In the residence, the north wall displays a wooden surface while, descending the hill, where the valley reveals many shades of grey, the building echoes the grey rock with stones combined with slabs covering the walls and with the house’s zinc-titanium bracketed roof,” explains the architect.
Porcelain stoneware, which accurately reproduces the aesthetic characteristics of natural stone, made a key contribution to this project: the ventilated walls have been made with Mystone Quarzite Platinum, juxtaposed with the Grande Metal Look collection in the Iron Dark colour to produce a natural iron effect. Porcelain stoneware slabs from the Grande Marble Look Imperiale collection were used for the wall and floor coverings in the bathrooms, featuring veining and shades that contrast with the uniformity of the other surfaces.
