Harmonious house

摘要

In San Vigilio di Marebbe in the Dolomites of the Val Badia, the clients run the family-managed Aqua Bad Cortina hotel. Upon getting confirmation that the spring ahove the house was a source of mineral-rich thermal water, they decided to enhance their hotel with a thermal bath. And they also wanted a house of their own for themselves and their four children. They are very spiritual people, whose lives epitomise a mindful approach to nature. The duplex house by architect Armin Pedevilla in the same valley instantly impressed them. Together, they developed a concept that translates the purifying power of spring water and mountain air into architecture. From the plinth-like cellar, whose concrete of dolomite stone from the stream was mixed on site with white cement and thermal water, to the uppermost hand-split larch shingles on the roof, the ciAsa (Rhaetian for 'house') is imbued with reverence for creation and handcraft. Its built form is homogenously clad with larch shingles. Atop the ground floor sits a steep, two-storey-high gabled roof whose peak has been clipped off. It is reminiscent of mountain chapels or praying hands. From the children's bedrooms on the first floor and the master bedroom beneath the roof, the windows protrude as dormers with trapezoidal windowpanes, and the roof spreads out over them like wings.