modern threshold

Located in the Swiss Alpine village of Lumino, just north of Bellinzona, this house stands as a monolithic element complementing the surrounding area with its traditional stone houses, many of which date back centuries. Sitting on the edge of the old village, the house acts as a sort of bastion between the old core and the modern residential expansion. The client expressed the desire for a minimalist aesthetic, both internally and externally. As such, the quality of the spaces in the house would be defined explicitly by the architecture and not by objects placed within it.

Davide Macullo Architects's idea of the ‘minimalist monolith’ was adopted as the conceptual generator of the project and became a principle applied to all elements of the both the functional and construction programme. The double system of vertical connections, one internal and one external, relates all the spaces of the house in a spiral movement and is in a constant play with its new inhabitants’ perception of time and scale. The principle of the house is to protect and guarantee an intimacy and privacy for its inhabitants and also to represent an air of generosity and an opening up to the world.