The wooden volumes of the sleeping area, contrasting with the concrete box of the living area
A project that breaks the house into distinct yet connected elements, creating a sequence of spaces that differ in character, light and relationship with the landscape.
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The beauty of a home is also measured by the quality and diversity of the spaces it offers. Casa Lu Lu is a villa in Geneva where every volume has a primary function: a concrete box on the ground floor houses the living room and kitchen, while the first floor was demolished and rebuilt with a timber structure. The sleeping area is made up of three distinct volumes, linked by an equipped glass corridor and arranged to generate a first-floor terrace. Beside the living room, the atelier is a standalone volume with a pitched roof, a glazed wall onto the garden and a mezzanine. AD Italia magazine devoted an article to the project.
A volume for every function. The project involved renovating the entire ground floor and the atelier section of the villa, and demolishing and rebuilding the whole first floor with a timber structure. In this way each volume has a genuine primary function. The concrete box on the ground floor houses the living room and kitchen. The wood-and-glass atelier offshoot, over two levels, is a standalone volume even in its language. The sleeping area is made up of three distinct volumes, arranged to create a first-floor terrace between them and the atelier roof. One volume, projecting into the garden, houses the master bedroom with en-suite bathroom; the volume facing the street houses the children’s bedrooms, separated from the parents’ volume by a small terrace; the third volume houses services, the staircase and a bathroom. All three volumes are linked by an equipped glass corridor.
The atelier. The ground floor holds all the living-area spaces, but divided into two entirely distinct zones: the living room and the atelier. The atelier has a pitched roof and a mezzanine housing a small guest room-study. The garden-side wall is fully glazed, and the staircase leading to the mezzanine is also enclosed in a glass ‘aquarium’. At the centre of the atelier, a volume was designed to house the bathroom: the space is thus split into three zones, each with different qualities. The lowest zone, beneath the mezzanine, is a gym that can be closed off by a large sliding panel.
The living room. The living room is enclosed within a concrete box, in which the garden-facing wall is completely dematerialised and replaced by two large sliding windows. Concrete is the leitmotif of the area, used also as the finish for the floor, the kitchen wall and the platform at the foot of the staircase. The Boffi kitchen has a white island that creates a contemporary contrast with the surfaces.
The staircase and sleeping area. The staircase connecting the living room to the sleeping area has cantilevered steps clad in oak, while the first steps are in concrete. The sleeping-area corridor is lined with bespoke boiserie integrated with the bookcase and the bedroom doors, which feature recessed channel handles.
The bedrooms and master bedroom. The children’s bedrooms have a wall, opposite the entrance door, entirely taken up by a glazing system that amplifies the relationship between interior space and view. The desks are conceived as a large shelf against the glass, for studying while looking outside. The master bedroom opens onto a small glass balcony over the main garden; inside, a walk-in closet with a glass door leads to the en-suite bathroom, finished with Mutina azulejos and Ceramica Cielo sanitaryware. AD Italia magazine devoted an article to the project.
