by Gianni Gamondi Arch.in con GGP Architetti / Monza Brianza, Italy

Clean, rational lines resulted when this country house in the Brianza area north of Milan was renovated for its modern art and vintage car collector owner. Standing in a nineteenth century park, the house and its agricultural outbuildings were both used by the owner as his home. The ren ovation updated the building, without imping ing on its structural coherence, but re-invent- ing the spaces, overcoming the contradiction between old and new and eliminating some of the original partitions so as to create a sequence larger rooms. The new layout of the interiors enabled the lounge to benefit from a perspective opening and make the most of the modern Italian ter- race garden in front of the building. of the While maintaining the outer appearance facades and the overall shape of the volumes, the house was redesigned to make better use of the living area up with a The courtyard, which was cluttered portico and the old garages, was restyled, cre- ating an extensive loft, while the car collection is housed in the original underground garage set under the courtyard, which is now occu- pied by the formal chequerboard pattern of the planted terrace living Making use of the height in the large room is a semi-circular balcony held up by steel tie-bars and cast iron beam supports designed by the architect Gianni Gamondi and installed by the sculptor Simon Benetton, which now houses the owner's collection of modern art through a skylight overhead, light floods in at the peak of the with adjustable panels set the balcony that roof and through the part of is made of glass. When the architect Gamondi set out to renovate the articulated sequence of buildings that comprise this nineteenth century residential complex in the countryside of the Brianza area, near Milan, and of the later additions made to it, he embarked on a skilled operation of stitching the spaces and functions in the various existing rural structures together and so integrating them logically, adding new connecting elements such as the intermediate link in the lounge showcase gallery, whose purpose is to house an important collection of modern American painting from the sixties and seventies or creating underground areas that do not change the structure of the historical buildings such as the underground carpark for the owner's collection of vintage cars, which occupies the space underneath the elegant geometric chequerboard pattern in the terrace garden overlooking the park. M. B.

Partner of projects:

» Lidi Snc di Giorgio di Berardino

» Air Calor S.r.l.