THE PASSOLARA
Before the house for his daughter Pina in Calvi Risorta, the entrepreneur Nicolino Iorio entrusted us with the task of restoring and expanding the eighteenth-century farmhouse inherited with the vineyard and surrounding fields from his wife Vittoria Farzati of Perdifumo in Cilento.
This work was also carried out by the client with economical work that required extensive planning and many presences in the construction site almost three hours away from Naples by car.
The principle of “thematizing the theme” – both a project method and a critical tool – here is centered on the railing, an apparently detailed element that has linked the measurements of the edges of the terraces with the 11.2 cm module marked by the iron rods squares 12 x 12 bound to the base and to the coping in flat irons 100 x 12.
Le Corbusier argued that the difference between good and bad architecture is a matter of centimetres, in this case it is the millimeters that have imposed great precision on all the constructive elements.
To respect the horizontality of the edges, the slopes of the terraces are constant and the outflow of rainwater is ensured by the channels placed under the perforated sheet metal grids.
In addition to the consolidation of the stone walls, the chestnut floors, which had several worm-eaten beams, were replaced with brick and concrete floors which also chained the walls.
From the intact beams, with over two centuries of seasoning, the boards were sawn to create the internal staircase and the dining table. The excavation of the garage provided the stone laid with dry joints according to the construction script in use in Cilento.
The paving of the square and the road is in small pieces of lava stone.
Two facts escaped my indications: the red which should have saturated the flaring of the slits and the white which should have been an ash grey. However, it seems that the house manages to express the energy of the details (although they tend to disappear) and, as Mies van der Rohe wished, of the metric precision elevated to an aesthetic factor.
