In the historic centre of Ravenna, in the classic urban conformation of a Gothic lot where the residential unit is made up of two distinct buildings separated by the internal courtyard, there is Anne, the courtyard house designed by the architect Giovanni Mecozzi with the aim of preserving and giving value to the pre-existing architectural elements.
The building
The main building is developed on three floors above ground connected by an internal barycentric staircase which separates each floor of the building into two parts. The main feature of the project is the original wooden ceilings, discovered during construction and fully restored: their material heaviness and the softness of the light filtered through the courtyard create a delicate balance.
The ground floor of the main building, from which the road access takes place, has been revisited keeping the original typological reading unchanged and with a focus on the perspective axis that links the entrance and the internal court.
The existing staircase is kept unchanged, while on the top floor, the demolition of the old false ceiling has revealed new spatial configurations, embellished through a continuous furnishing solution that conceals the services dedicated to the sleeping area and leaves the double-height volume free in its entirety.
The courtyard
The internal courtyard, enriched by a green space planted with essences, is the real heart of the house. Here the dialogue between traditional and contemporary materials is enhanced by the recovery of the original façade of the annex and the perimeter wall, in exposed brick.
Moreover, in the lower part of the façade, the new large central opening connecting the ground floor of the annex with the patio, is created in antithesis to the two opposite traditional arched openings of the kitchen, in the façade of the main building. The ancient tradition returns then in the heat-treated larch wood cladding, laid in vertical slats.
The element that makes the courtyard so special is its double functionality: in the summer the courtyard is transformed into an open-air living room, while in the winter the presence of the green space remains as a constant background in all the rooms on the ground floor of the house, thus definitely improving the quality of the time spent indoors.
