Project Leader Arkpabi – Giorgio Palù & Michele Bianchi Architetti.
Personal Tasks: 2D drawings, 3D model, Architecture Visualization.

Villa Wadia is located in the Bautugan (Cap d’Ail) area. An area of unquestionable beauty and high scenic value consisting of large steep slopes and remarkable vedustic points on the sea. It is from the morphology of the place, sinking its constructive roots in the genius loci, that the very idea of the project takes shape. Taking advantage of the characteristics of the place, the villa fits into the existing orography, amplifying its perceptual characteristics, framing the landscape. The house thus consists of a sculptural element that fits into the ground, creating an open space to the outside. The intervention involves the replacement of the existing building with the obligation to maintain the site and volumes. The rooms result in a close relationship with the outdoor space. For this reason, the volume breaks down letting the outside penetrate to the inside and vice versa. Natural light in turn interferes with the building, producing volumetric inflections, creating spaces with poetic reaction (quoting Le Corbusier).
The user is captured in this way by the environment that envelops him and stimulates him to perceive the landscape. The house is divided into 3 levels above ground: The roof, from which the interior of the building is accessed and from which the main view of the coast is created. Different green outdoor spaces that follow each other in an outdoor walkway above the built volume. The main projecting volume, cites in morphology the Malaparte house by master Libera, through a staircase that metaphorically connects the house to the sea. The first floor breaks down into 5 volumes that have different formal characteristics structuring the interior space. 3 large asymmetrical and irregular white reinforced concrete sails compose the sleeping area, opening the rooms toward the slope leading to the sea below. The main glazed volume houses the living area creating a space dedicated to daily leisure.
The bronze volume encloses the master bedroom crumbling materially outward. The more intimate ground floor encloses other bedrooms and the important living area dedicated to the swimming pool forming a physical link with the outdoor space. These volumes are connected to each other both spatially and functionally by the 2 foundational elements of the house: The retaining wall that hinges the volumes to the mountain, bringing air and light to the basement and distributing the spaces and the patio that penetrates the levels interweaving visual relationships between the various floors, creating an outdoor space in the basement as well.
The design works on the surprise effect, denying the upstream views, where the pedestrian entrance leads to a green terrace that hides the parking lot below from view and on which the path winds, allowing the visitor to reach the panoramic terrace, or to enter the dwelling. By means of a panoramic elevator lined with perforated sheet metal or by means of a staircase anchored to the retaining wall, access is gained to the main floor, where the true internal vertical connecting element finds its place: a glazed volume enclosing the internal connecting staircase. This staircase descends to the first floor, consisting of a sleeping area with three bedrooms, a suspended living area overlooking the sea and a master bedroom. Descending to the floor below we reach the large living area, the beating heart of the project, glazed on the internal patio and in close relationship with the garden with swimming pool thanks to a fully openable window.