Though I love the feel and ambience of traditional old stone houses in the countryside whether in the UK or Italy , they can be rather limiting in design terms because a building over a certain age will likely be the Italian equivalent of a listed building and you will be prevented by the Belle Artes from changing the outside, certainly the external openings and sometimes the inside.
On the top of my list for my home was that it has to be full of natural light and so for that reason when I bought my house in Liguria I was looking for something I could change radically inside and out in order to create a modern light filled home. So I ended up buying a really ugly late 70′s house, not the usual expat choice to buy in Italy ! The more traditional houses I looked at in better positions (nearer Lerici) had impossible space i.e. difficult to do anything with, and probably more relevant to me impossible prices!
Creating a contemporary home so far out of the ugly duckling has involved many debates with the architect and also with the planners and builders. The height of the doors, the size of the windows, with large windows how to keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter, what technology to use etc etc .
One of the more amusing discussions has been over the floor/paving and the battiscopa or lack of one. What no battiscopa said the builder what do you want to put in its place, well nothing, literally nothing a gap between where the plaster finishes and the floor begins so it looks like the wall is hanging above the floor.
This is a treatment which you often see in contemporary houses in the UK but is not seen often in Italy. Particularly as plaster board is a relatively new building technique in Italy but which is standard in the UK and also in the UK you get off the shelf aluminium profiles to create the gap. In Italy these are not available. So started the big discussion on how we were to create the gap.
How high do you want this gap then 8cm ? No far to high as it is not a battiscopa! No more than 3cm in height. How do you keep the walls from getting dirty when you clean the floor….? well whoever cleans the floor ( and I have a feeling it is going to be me) has to be careful and also use clean water. Ok well then perhaps, they suggested, we should use a material which wont rust or get damaged and wont need painting. Ok a compromise is eventually reached, lets use a purpose made stainless steel L- shaped profile and if necessary I will paint it the same colour as the wall myself if I dont like it being shiny.
The finish used on the floor in a contemporary house is often an industrial flooring in concrete or with a resin finish so it has a uniform simple look. This time both the architect and the builder seemed to think I would be better off using a ceramic tile to mimic the look at the getting a good finish is quite difficult. They may be right as I have seen some really bad finishes in the Uk and here and I dont know if I can face the worry of the builder doing it and the finish not being right. So after some thought and much searching for the right ceramic tile, I have found one which looks like a resin finish.Apparently using a tile ‘rectificato’ (one with flat cut sides) they can be laid really close to give a similar uniform finish and it is cheaper… strange as it seems to be a rule of law that so far every finish I have chosen seems to be the more expensive option so thats good news.Here’s hoping the tiles and the shadow gap look good when finished.
On the top of my list for my home was that it has to be full of natural light and so for that reason when I bought my house in Liguria I was looking for something I could change radically inside and out in order to create a modern light filled home. So I ended up buying a really ugly late 70′s house, not the usual expat choice to buy in Italy ! The more traditional houses I looked at in better positions (nearer Lerici) had impossible space i.e. difficult to do anything with, and probably more relevant to me impossible prices!
Creating a contemporary home so far out of the ugly duckling has involved many debates with the architect and also with the planners and builders. The height of the doors, the size of the windows, with large windows how to keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter, what technology to use etc etc .
One of the more amusing discussions has been over the floor/paving and the battiscopa or lack of one. What no battiscopa said the builder what do you want to put in its place, well nothing, literally nothing a gap between where the plaster finishes and the floor begins so it looks like the wall is hanging above the floor.
This is a treatment which you often see in contemporary houses in the UK but is not seen often in Italy. Particularly as plaster board is a relatively new building technique in Italy but which is standard in the UK and also in the UK you get off the shelf aluminium profiles to create the gap. In Italy these are not available. So started the big discussion on how we were to create the gap.
How high do you want this gap then 8cm ? No far to high as it is not a battiscopa! No more than 3cm in height. How do you keep the walls from getting dirty when you clean the floor….? well whoever cleans the floor ( and I have a feeling it is going to be me) has to be careful and also use clean water. Ok well then perhaps, they suggested, we should use a material which wont rust or get damaged and wont need painting. Ok a compromise is eventually reached, lets use a purpose made stainless steel L- shaped profile and if necessary I will paint it the same colour as the wall myself if I dont like it being shiny.
The finish used on the floor in a contemporary house is often an industrial flooring in concrete or with a resin finish so it has a uniform simple look. This time both the architect and the builder seemed to think I would be better off using a ceramic tile to mimic the look at the getting a good finish is quite difficult. They may be right as I have seen some really bad finishes in the Uk and here and I dont know if I can face the worry of the builder doing it and the finish not being right. So after some thought and much searching for the right ceramic tile, I have found one which looks like a resin finish.Apparently using a tile ‘rectificato’ (one with flat cut sides) they can be laid really close to give a similar uniform finish and it is cheaper… strange as it seems to be a rule of law that so far every finish I have chosen seems to be the more expensive option so thats good news.Here’s hoping the tiles and the shadow gap look good when finished.
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