Residence Near Vicenza by Jimmi Pianezzola

The town of Dueville, whose population numbers just under 15 000, lies a bit north of Vicenza in the densely populated landscape of the Veneto. A villa by Palladio still stands here; a further patrician residence was built in the Palladian style in the 18th century

For the single-family home tellingly known as Villa No. 3, architect Jimmi Pianezzola from Vicenza chose another Renaissance building as a model: Villa dei Vescovi, which was designed by the architect Giovanni Maria Falconetto and stands in the hills of Padua. 

A conservatory beneath a pyramidal roof

Both the square floor plan and the pyramid-shaped roof of the new house were derived from this reference. Pianezzola has replaced the portico that graces the home’s historical model with an unheated conservatory. Behind this, a living space featuring an open kitchen extends over most of the width of the house, flanked only by a laundry room and a porch.

Simple details, symmetrical shape

Bluish-white plastered facades, floor-to-ceiling aluminum windows and a roof of corrugated metal sheeting without eavestroughs determine the unadorned exterior of the house. The north side is home to two bedrooms and a study. The two entrances, which are somewhat recessed, lead into the house from the east and west. 

A traditional model for a climate-control approach

In this house the construction, spatial concept and climate-control approach go hand in hand. The wall delimiting the living room from the conservatory consists of uninsulated solid wood; in the winter, it becomes an effective heat store. In the summertime, the deep roof protects the house from excessive solar irradiation. For the ventilation, Pianezzola adapted three concepts from the Renaissance villa: cross-ventilation from south to north, stack ventilation with thermal buoyancy via a roof window and air supply through underground ducts that have been laid in the foam-glass gravel insulation beneath the floor slab. 

Wood and straw

The exterior walls and roof of the house consist of prefabricated wooden elements with straw-bale insulation. The highest point of the roof surfaces rests on a solid-wood wall panel; Pianezzola likens this to a totem pole. A spiral stairway at the centre of the building leads up to the mezzanine, which was conceived as an entirely open level with no partition walls.