Studio Wok Designs A Minimalist Country Home In Verona

‘A Country Home in Chievo’ draws upon both contemporary and traditional design, creating a dialogue between epochs in this former agricultural court by the river Adige. The materials of the facade are typical to the vernacular of the area—and in keeping with the leitmotif of the project, new meets old in most aspects of the build. On the facade, river pebbles have been grafted onto frames crafted from Biancone; a local stone from Lessinia. The use of both larch and birch wood was a deliberate nod to architectural sites of old. As the architects explain, the wooden uprights that surround the courtyard and windows recall, “in a contemporary way, the wooden walls typical of barns found in local rural courts.”

The house itself sits across three storeys that are structured around a living room with full height ceiling. The ground floor features stone pavement throughout, and houses the living area and library; the upper floors that contain the bedrooms are “perceived as a wooden volume hanging from the ceiling”, explain the architects. The garden was given just as much thought as the interior and was redesigned around a single magnolia tree. Bordered by a black flower bed beside an oblong pool, the architects explain that the tree has become “the protagonist of the outdoor space…the shadow of its foliage is projected at sunset onto the stone facade and is visible from all rooms.”