MC Palace

The warm sun of Apulia, the green Itria Valley and a passion for nature were the inspiration for the design of the home of a Dutch couple who chose one of Italy's most beautiful villages, Cisternino, as their place to live. The building, an old palace on four levels, is located in the heart of the historic centre and faces the majestic and elegant main square on one side and a narrow alley on the other, while on the remaining sides it is set against the adjacent urban fabric. The rectangular shape of the floor plan, which is long and narrow, severely limited natural lighting and air exchange, undermining living comfort and radically compromising its use to the point of abandonment. The energy recovery and redevelopment project was an opportunity, starting from an analysis of the critical issues, to experiment with a new way of inhabiting an intimate space with an "immersive green" concept. At the centre of the building, a double-height patio with a large skylight that can be opened as required, acts as a regulating element of thermo-hygrometric comfort in the different seasons; during the summer it functions as a "wind tower" sucking in fresh air from below and expelling hot air from above, while during the winter it serves as a "solar greenhouse" capturing light and heat inside to distribute it to the surrounding spaces. The dwelling is consciously designed to no longer be a closed and abstract box in relation to the outside world, but open and in relation to the nature inside, able to interact with the context surrounding it outside. The first floor of the building consists of the oldest part of the building and is characterised by vaulted rooms. A suspended metal staircase, like a space-time spiral, leads to the upper private floors characterised by contemporary spaces and forms. The central empty space of the patio becomes the heart of the building, within it a lush garden (Monstera deliciosa, Musa paradisiaca, Arecastrum romanzoffianum or Pteridophyta, Philodendron, Ficus repens, Vica minor, Tillandsia), which, in a purely urban context, reconnects with nature, creating a microcosm capable of harnessing the natural resources of geothermal energy, solar radiation, air flows and recycled water for plants, distributing psycho-physical well-being according to the principles of biophilia. Facing the central core of the multi-level patio are the reserved and intimate spaces on one side and the living spaces on the other, connected by a glass walkway suspended between the garden and the sky. The main façade, stereometric and austere, is filtered by climbing plants and small shrubs (Camellia sasanqua, Solanum jasminoides, Lonicera pileata or Jasminum nudiflorum) which, in the tradition of Mediterranean villages, preserve the intimacy of the interior spaces of the first floors, while at the top, on a set-back space, they create a garden terrace with a panoramic view of the historic centre.