Casa Gardella, Arenzano

project
1963 - 1964
construction
1963 - 1964
location
collaborators

Elena Balsari Berrone (progettista del verde)

client

Famiglia Gardella

manufacturing technology

Load-bearing structure: beans and piers in reinforced concrete

Façade: white plaster with a rough trowel finish

Windows: pitch-pine, painted white

Roof: pitched roof with slate tiles; roof garden over the living room)

description
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The house designed for the Gardella family has many of the features of Villa Arosio (1956-1959), built in the vicinity and de facto the starting point for this new project.

The domestic area of the single story, L-shaped plan once again revolves around the multi-level living room (opening onto a portico supported by cylindrical columns) and preceded by a raised entrance from where it was possible to access the sleeping area on one side (with four bedrooms) and the service rooms on the other.

Here too, the roof plays a key role, conveying the relationship between the building and its surroundings - a flat rural expanse. While most of the pitched slate roof slopes slightly, the part above the living room is a flat roof garden providing a scenic view over the surrounding countryside (the garden was again designed together with Elena Balsari Berrone). The roof can be reached either using the curved steps that start in front of the portico, or by an outdoor staircase on the opposite side of the house; the stairs are a natural extension of the house. The brick structure of Casa Arosio has a reinforced concrete frame but, as in other houses, the outer walls are covered with white glazed plaster; the painted wooden shutters are also painted the same colour.

bibliography

V. Magistretti, Relazione di progetto, Casa Gardella, Arenzano, 1963-64

Il piacere di aprire le finestre, in La rivista dell'arredamento 6, giugno 1973

R. Aloi, Villa Gardella ad Arenzano, Genova, in Nuove Ville, Hoepli, Milano, 1973

Ad Arenzano, in Ville & Giardini 172, dicembre 1982

R. Pedio, Linea Lombarda. Opere di Vico Magistretti, in L'Architettura, cronache e storia 57, 1960

Una villa nella pineta di Arenzano, in Abitare 43, 1966

F. Irace, V. Pasca, Vico Magistretti, architetto e designer, Milano 1999

project profile by Maria Manuela Leoni
same years