Carlotta Di Sandro and Cecilia Marcheschi of Atelier Vago have added pops of shiny blue and yellow to the Pailunga inventive house in a deconsecrated chapel close to Pisa, Italy.
Positioned within the countryside surrounding the village of Fauglia, Pailunga is a inventive house providing residencies for artists, significantly musicians.
It’s the first accomplished challenge by Florence-based Atelier Vago, commissioned by composer and psychologist Giulio Fagiolini.
Fagiolini’s ambition was to “restore a non secular vocation” to this near-ruined construction, which types a part of a historic farming property as soon as owned by the distinguished D’Achiardi household.
“The little church as soon as served because the liturgical and social centre for the encircling neighborhood,” defined Di Sandro and Marcheschi.
“Each Sunday, mass was celebrated right here by the Salesians, aided by the broad, shaded backyard outdoors, the place worshippers may collect and linger.”
Working to a decent funds, the designers deliberate a renovation that restored the facade of the outdated chapel and overhauled the inside, permitting it to operate as each a reside/work house and a venue for intimate live shows.
Intelligent use of color allowed them to create character regardless of minimal interventions.
“The color palette lends the interiors a pop character, softening areas that may in any other case really feel austere,” mentioned the duo.
“The chromatic decisions additionally replicate the intention to create a pointy distinction between the brand new insertions and the prevailing construction.”
The brand new additions embrace a folded metal staircase, that includes a blue tone chosen to enrich the remaining traces of a fresco on the chapel’s apse.
This staircase connects the bottom flooring with a lately added wood mezzanine, which now serves as a bed room. But it surely does not prolong all the best way all the way down to the bottom.
Atelier Vago designed an additional staircase, comprising simply 4 steps, to finish the descent. This factor is cellular, so it may be moved out of the best way throughout performances.
Different blue particulars embrace a custom-made balustrade, which echoes the constructing’s curved geometries, and the body of the rose window within the bed room house.
The usage of yellow in the meantime references the constructing’s facade. It was chosen for door frames, toilet fittings and varied furnishings parts.
The designers describe their strategy as “embracing the scars of the previous and weaving them into new architectural gestures”.
“The architectural challenge is guided by the precept of enhancing what stays and preserving historic traces,” they mentioned.
“A home for artwork, anchored within the current but projected right into a timeless dimension, Pailunga will not be merely to be thought-about a former place of worship tailored for residential and inventive use, however a stage for human creativity, able to nourishing the soul and revealing the sacred inside the on a regular basis.”
The constructing welcomed its first resident, cellist Antonio Cortesi, in September. He was given entry to recording tools, guitars and a grand piano, and Fagiolini produced a recording of the outcomes.
Pailunga additionally serves as a part-time dwelling and workspace for Fagiolini.
The pictures is by Carlotta Di Sandro.
