Villa by the sea in Sicily. Naturalistic elements become an integral part of architecture

C|U is a project for a semi-detached villa located in Termini Imerese, in a land characterised by a dual condition with a strong environmental component on one hand with Mount San Calogero and the coast as protagonists and on the other hand an industrial component with strongly impacting buildings

The design commitment was focused on enhancing the landscape, making naturalistic elements an integral part of the architecture and, at the same time, concealing from view the deterioration caused by nearby industrial plants by adopting precise compositional choices. The settlement principle is based on the concept of terracing, of which the lower level of the project is a clear expression while respecting the morphology of the site

The project envisages two residential units of about 145 square metres on two levels: a basement floor that houses the most intimate rooms of the house and a floor above ground where the private rooms of each flat alternate with common open spaces. The main access to the two flats is through two promenades, one characterized by a secret garden and the other by an underground passage with a strong poetic appeal defined by the vibration of light filtering through the water of the swimming pool

In the living area there are large windows framing fragments of landscape, giving the architecture a strong poetic and emotional appeal. Even the two patios, conceived as contemplative places are defined by a few architectural and natural elements that give these spaces an extremely poetic expressive power