The concept of the transparent container Inspired by Philip Johnson's Glass House, the “Teca House” building arises from the ruins of a rustic building in the Biella hills.
Conceived with a minimal-naturalist approach, Teca House is a contemporary building born from the professional friendship between Federico Delrosso, a Milanese architect and designer of Biella origins, and the client, Alberto Savio, a textile entrepreneur in the area.
The project, which consists in the recovery of a small rustic building in the splendid setting of the hills of Biella, is based on an intervention of compositional inversion, which brings to the outside, dematerializing it, a small pre-existing rustic volume giving life to a new function in the area. From the “roots” of an agricultural past, now in disuse, of which the signs are maintained, a contemporary work is born, rooted in the territory and in balance with it, but at the same time permeated with new possibilities of use.
A transparent container in nature
The building, which takes inspiration from Philip Johnson's Glass House, has an area of about 80 square meters that extends by another 50 by opening the sliding glass walls that completely surround the volume. There flexibility of the project, makes this space ideal for meetings or host a working cocktail but it is also an intimate refuge for reading or yoga practice. It can also turn into one guest quarters occasional events of the landlord and his wife who live nearby, in a villa located at the foot of the hill. Teca House was conceived as a precious cultural container, a landmark with the aim of creating new opportunities for relationships with the Biella area.
“In this project, the Teca preserves man and his emotions. A privileged and poetic point of view, a total immersion in nature, almost as if the user were suspended in the void. At the same time it works in the negative: the gaze is in fact turned from the inside to the outside, to indicate the centrality of the human being ”.
Federico Delrosso declares.
Il relationship between past and present and between “work” and context it is balanced without altering the dimensional balance of the place, also going to enhance its environmental value and becoming a point of reference not only cultural but also visual. The rural wall system becomes the base, the connection with the territory from which the new intervention is born, light and transparent: a concrete structure that opens towards the landscape with two large horizontal wings and a completely openable glass skin that encloses it. the volume.
The architectural layout was created with the intention of favoring the correct solar contributions: the conformation of the floors that extend elongated beyond the glass case have the purpose of protecting from summer solar radiation, favoring the winter one.
In addition to the recovery of the original stone from the rustic, they were used sustainable materials and left unfinished, such as concrete for structure and floors and birch plywood for furnishings and coverings.
Le sophisticated architectural and structural solutions, although not visible externally, they allowed the building to be integrated with highly performing solutions and materials aimed at eliminating and correcting thermal bridges. The plant engineering combined with the insulation interventions bring the building into energy class A4. The construction of a single energy air-to-air heat pump air conditioning system combined with radiant floor systems, and fan coils, the VMC system and the high-performance photovoltaic system, guarantee environmental comfort, throughout the year and with any external climatic conditions.
“When I bought the small ruin and the land where it now stands Teca House, I had no idea what it could have become. " said Albert Savio. “The comparison with Frederick Delrosso, to which a sincere professional relationship and friendship binds me, his vision of architecture and the role it can and must have, fascinated and persuaded me about the opportunity that this place was offering me: to be able to leave a mark that remained beyond my and my family's time. With this awareness, I accepted the project proposals. It was a challenge to accompany Federico's creative process: behind every detail there are drawings, thoughts, solutions discarded in favor of what was then achieved. A fair, honest and common sense approach. Absolute attention to the landscape, spaces, materials and finishes. A sign that has become a dream"
The "Teca House" project was presented at the "Time space existence" exhibition at Palazzo Mora, set up on the occasion of the XXVI Architecture Biennale in Venice 2018 and is the protagonist of the video on Federico Delrosso "Dreaming the Real" directed by Luca De Santis and curated by Davide Giannella, and presented at MDFF 2018.
project info
Project name: Teca House
Website: www.tecahouse.org
Architecture Office: Federico Delrosso Architects
Client: TETI Srl
Location: Biella, Italy
Year of conclusion: 2020
total area: 130 sqm
Engineering: AI Projects
Mechanicals: Studio Bonomi
Contractor: Panuccio Construction
Architectural photographer: Matteo Piazza
Manufacturers / Brands
Custom furniture design: Frederick Delrosso
Lighting: Davidegroppi
Furnishings: Henrytimi
Kitchen: Niva Architectural Elements
taps: Cea Design
Plant Styling: Anna Scaravella, architect and landscape architect
