SITE
Just a few kilometres from the centre of Varese, bordering the fragmented, urban fabric of the province and the surrounding countryside, an old, abandoned hay barn has resisted the changes of time. An urban block of 3.5 m by 15 m in between the houses, has unexpectedly kept its authenticity. This is a place which has never really been a home but is rather a hybrid between rural refuge and temporary deposit. The space, camouflaged as storage, was originally a hay barn, which over time was patched up and resewn, shedding its skin to suit each owner’s needs.
Francesca, the client, is a successful blogger and content creator in the culinary field.
Her need was to create a suitable place to enhance her work philosophy based on respect for traditions and attentive to sustainability issues. Francesca asked us to create a project that could accommodate , educate and create, a contemporary and traditional workshop of sorts at the same time.

SCOPE
The objective of our intervention was the determination to recognise the personal history of this place, according to a specific strategy of maintenance and reconstruction of the space’s core elements. The point of departure was our conviction that every space has its own story to tell and our goal was to align the existing with the new. Exploring the layers of the past allowed us to crystallise the essence of the space and to act through targeted interventions, contrasting or integrating the key elements of the existing space and shaping its current identity.

STRATEGY
We have preserved the textures and the original traces of the old loft areas as a reminder of this building’s numerous layers of history. The decision to maintain the south wall intact, with its thick line of bricks, irregular in colour and shape, was of fundamental importance here. Perfect testimony to a building process based on stratification. At the same time, we decided to transform all interventions which were not coherent with the history of this place and in this sense not original, as regards large openings. We returned the building to its primitive state: that which was originally open in order to stock straw, was reconverted into large, windowed spaces, as with the north wall.

STRATIFY
By renovating the original envelope, we introduced contemporaneity. Breaking with the “unwritten-rules” of the surrounding buildings, we introduced new geometrical forms which in their purity offer a new interpretation of the building’s context. For the internal spaces, our approach was direct and honest, choosing to work with few materials, in opposition to what we found with the categorical use of white as a way of underlining the “new”. The cement flooring was created using only white aggregates and the buffer panels between the roof beams were also made using OSB wood painted white. To finish, the metalwork, perforated sheet metal, also all in white, allows light to project new geometric forms as it passes through. Light was used in this project as an architectural instrument able to define and amplify the indoor space. Newness is integrated delicately, discreetly and gradually into the existing space, respecting the character of this simple, rural place.

SEMPLICITY
Simplicity is in the eye of the beholder. 009 – BBL is the surprising simplicity in an urban context, often characterised as “fast architecture”. We like to think that a conscience intervention into the history of the place and its space, thanks to attention to detail and geometry, thanks to a studied use of materials, composition and local know-how, can be the starting point for connecting past to present in the simplest and lightest way. Beginning with the idea that often the simplest things are the most profound and unexpectedly, for this reason they are timeless.