LCA Architetti has used cork, straw, and timber to construct an easy and sustainable house overlooking woodland within the small city of Magnago, Italy.
Aptly named The Home of Wooden, Straw and Cork, the dwelling close to Milan was commissioned by a younger couple who wished to stay extra sustainably and in nearer contact with nature.
LCA Architetti‘s design is intentionally pared-back, in a bid to retain give attention to the house’s rural environment whereas minimising its environmental influence.
That is helped with the usage of pure and recyclable development supplies, together with a prefabricated timber construction, straw insulation and cladding comprised of cork – a renewable, resistant and insulating materials that’s harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree.
“The purchasers wished a house in direct contact with nature, a wholesome and environmentally-friendly constructing, the place they might benefit from the little issues,” stated the studio’s founder, Luca Compri.
“The home wished to be born from the earth and have the colors of the earth, of the cultivated fields that encompass it,” he informed Dezeen. “The composition is intentionally easy and primitive, the mannequin was the previous barns nonetheless current within the space.”
The dimensions and form of The Home of Wooden, Straw and Cork takes its cues from neighbouring buildings, which features a collection of previous agricultural barns.
Devoid of decoration, this kind establishes the textured cork cladding as the house’s point of interest.
The usage of cork additionally offers a thermally environment friendly pores and skin for the home that, in tandem with the straw insulation, helps to minimise the constructing’s vitality demand.
The straw that has been used to insulate the constructing was all acquired from rice vegetation discarded by native farmers.
An array of rooftop photo voltaic panels and an air-source warmth pump assist scale back the constructing’s vitality consumption additional.
Inside, the bottom ground of the home incorporates a kitchen, bed room and examine, alongside two loos, a laundry room and a double-height front room.
Above, a mezzanine ground homes a small gymnasium, alongside a second bed room, a rest room and one other examine.
The lounge, which sits on the coronary heart of the home, is fronted by a big glazed wall that disrupts the monolithic cork cladding.
That is designed to border the encircling panorama, making certain that nature has a “fixed presence within the every day lifetime of the home and of the individuals who stay there”.
The furnishings used all through The Home of Wooden, Straw are full in a minimalist materials palette of oak wooden, ceramic and stone.
That is acts as a continuation of the house’s easy kind exterior and helps to retain give attention to views exterior.
Stand-out furnishings embody seamless bespoke cabinetry throughout the partitions, marble-cladding on some partitions and the deep-set door frames.
Rundzwei Architekten additionally just lately used cork cladding to create the Cork Screw House in Berlin. The panels are comprised of waste cork granules discarded by a wine-bottling firm.
Studio Bark constructed a garden building almost entirely from cork in 2018 to point out how one eco-friendly materials can be utilized to kind a complete constructing envelope.
Images is by Simone Bossi.
Challenge credit:
Architect: LCA Architetti
Home windows and frames: SMP serramenti
Furnishings: Falegnameria Codar
Cork: Tecnosugheri