Yin & Yang

A seventeenth-century portico becomes a home

The renovation of a historic building in Brescia, on the hills overlooking the city: a seventeenth-century house, extended in the nineteenth century with a portico once crossed by a road, becomes a contemporary home without losing its memory.

In a particularly evocative panoramic area of Brescia stands a seventeenth-century building to which Massimo Rodighiero, of the Rodighiero.Design studio that bears his name, together with architect Riccardo Odolini, has given a new vision through renovation and reinterpretation. The building, extended in the nineteenth century with a portico once crossed by a road, has undergone a major transformation that respects its existing context, becoming a family home of character and originality.

The starting point of the project is the metamorphosis, following an earlier renovation, of a large empty space, the former portico, into a living area on two levels. While introducing the contemporary style of comfortable, welcoming rooms, the project sets out to keep the historical memory of the place intact.

The double-height windows form a kind of shell that leaves the image of the outer arcades intact, framing the interior like a sanctuary. A suspended ceiling, detached from the inner walls, opens up to form a staircase, creating an open space on two levels that feels like a single large room. The oldest part of the house holds the kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms, whose large windows look out over the exceptional view. Each room tells a story of its own through a skilful mix of materials and colours.