Villa Mylae. The design of a Mediterranean house in the Myth area

The intervention area, of great landscape value, stands out on the skyline of the Aeolian Islands at the center of a mythological-landscape context of considerable cultural relevance. Studio NextBuild's intervention first dealt with "subtracting" rather than "adding," in search of contemporary living that dialogues with the nature of the places and the landscape scenery of Capo Milazzo. Then the architects redeveloped the two pre-existing buildings respecting their "differences" but also emphasizing their different identities through a double plastic and constructive strategy

The northernmost building is demolished and in its place a new "compact and Mediterranean body of the building is built, freed from the Nordic/Pedemontan frills that besieged it." The new volume, with its introverted character, opens to the landscape through a practicable terrace roof protected by adjustable aluminum louvers. The masonry building, on the other hand, is redefined in its relationship to the context through the extension of the stone facade that is extended in a south and north direction, enhancing its plastic autonomy from the masonry volume behind. This summarizes the building's role as a landmark with respect to the Via Paradiso on which it faces

The two buildings that constitute Villa Mylae are functionally reconnected through a small glazed corridor: this passage is crowned by the ancient stone portal of the masonry house, moved here to mark the "threshold" of the new reconstructed volume. Special attention was paid to the elements marking the transition between the interior and exterior of the villa, which were integrated into the general lines of the project and "dialogue from time to time with the design of the gardens and architectural elements."

A continuous lawn and various thematic gardens surround the villa on the south and west sides. Earthen basins bordered by linear seating, containing planes of gravel, grasses, and aromatics dot the garden in which the few pre-existing trees have been retained and integrated with the new design