2021.05
House Cinsc in Platform Architecture Magazine
Publication
Milan, IT
A retreat among the peaks
"In the extreme north-west of the Italian Alps, immersed in the most unspoiled nature, House Cinsc is located in one of the few valleys spared by the expansion of mass tourism, which transformed the mountains between the 1950s and 1980s."
"We are almost 1400 meters above sea level, where the roads become gradually steeper to reach the small group of houses perched on a mountain ridged. Places inhabited for generations that have maintained vast expanses of pasture meadows and cultivated land, have now returned to dense woods. An inevitable process of the re-appropriation of nature that characterizes the existing valley and attracts a slow and respectful tourist flow."
"House Cinsc is an act of recovery and a reinterpretation of the alpine rural dwelling. The project restores the old shape, consolidates the walls and intervenes by reconfiguring the interiors. From an exchange of volumes, an additional body arises that enriches the original layout and clarifies spaces and functions."
"The interior is thus configured as a privileged space from which to observe the profile of the surrounding peaks. Apparently devoid of ornament, it is rigorous and minimal in language, as Alpine culture dictates. In a context strongly characterized by the use of stone, we chose wood for the interior floors, walls, ceilings and main furnishings."
"The contrast between exterior and interior is evident: outside a hard, cold stone body, mimetic with the landscape; inside, instead, an intimate and warm environment, where timber is the protagonist. The recovery was a balancing act between tradition and contemporaneity, in an attempt to maintain the identity of the place and preserve the alpine rural heritage."
