Designed by Damilano Studio Architects, the house extends horizontally with a row of premises that end up with the kitchen, real field glasses pointed to the village. The above mentioned volume dominates the access to the garage and controls the entrance to the property.

B - House, image courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

B - House, image courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

In opposite directions, this house develops northwards with the body of the rooms more intimate and intimist and southward with the swimming pool, a wide sheet of water, reflections and light. The living floor is a spotless space, corrupt by the materiality of a fossil stone wall and by blobs of colour of some furniture.

B - House, image courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

B - House, image courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

The first floor is reserved to landlords and hosts a wide room, the wardrobe box and the bathroom. The roofs are wide terraces, alternatives hanging by relaxation of the garden. In the night come out the depth of volumes and leaks highlighted by luminous cuts and clear/dark contrasts.

SUSTAINABLE FEATURES

Structure in brick-cement
Installation of floor heating with accumulating and condensing boiler model ATAG (27000 Kg/cal)
Exterior wall: double course (interior course poroton 20 cm, air space 10 cm which is placed an board insulation made with 4 + 4 cm wool glass density 40 kg/m3, exterior course brick thickness 12 cm);
Production hot water with solar thermal vacuum tube "termomax"
Low emissivity glass (k <2) glass 4+4mm, air space 15 mm, glass 4+4 mm
Dehumidifying  Plaster

BUILDING MATERIALS

Exterior floor: Indian grey stone;
Interior floor in the living room”white”: Taxsos
Wall pannelling in the living room: Forest Brown
Interior and exterior wood floor: teak

MAIN FURNITURE
CONVERSATION AREA
Sofa Corbeille from Francesco Binfaré (Edra)
Armchairs Getsuen from Masanori Umeda (Edra)
chair More(e) leather from Philipp Starck (Driade)
Pouf: Koishi da Naoto Fukasawa (Driade)

B - House, image courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

LIVING ROOM
Ceiling lamp by Ingo Maurer mod. Zettel
Chairs B&B lazy '05 by Patricia Urquiola

B - House, image courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

KITCHEN
Kitchen Arclinea mod. Convivium
Chairs kitchen: DriadeStore le Meridiana by Christopher Pillet
Lamp mod. Campari by Ingo Maurer
Electrical: gaggenau.

B - House, image courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

BATHROOM (FIRST FLOOR)
Bath Tosco Quattro mod. Concerto
Washbasin: Tosco Quattro mod. Concerto
Taps and fitting Tosco Quattro
Shower Flaminia mod. Tatami
Heating by Tubes
Lamp by Ingo Maurer mod. Schiltz Up

Windows doors by Rimadesio.
External lighting by Deltalight
Sculpture vase by Serralunga
Light on the roof mod. “Havana” by Foscarini

B - House, Basement floor plan courtesy Damilano Studio Architects

B - House, Ground floor plan courtesy Damilano Studio Architects

B - House, First floor plan courtesy Damilano Studio Architects

+ Project credits / data

Project: B – HOUSE
Type: Residential house
Surface area: 2000 sqm
Surface building: 355 sqm
Year of Completion: 2008
Location: Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy

Team project: Damilano studio Architects | http://www.damilanostudio.com/
Architect: Duilio Damilano
Collaborator: Arch. Claudia Allinio
Photographer: Andrea Martiradonna

+ About DAMILANO STUDIO ARCHITECTS

It is an instinctive vocation, a feeling that starts from deep inside and only at a later time is conveyed inside the channels of rationality. Certainly is something that's always been part of my approach to architecture and which goes into my entire project. I mean the kind of lighting that goes beyond the physical aspect of the luminous element  to become an integral part of the architectural design. A project can't peter out with the daylight.

Duilio Damilano

This practise of architecture is named after its founder Duilio Damilano who moved from Polytechnic of Turin to Milan, in order to follow a work- shop by Daniel Libeskind, where he's developed his concept of architectural research directed towards the concreteness of space.

His passion for volumes, instead, comes from a family of sculptors. His father and his brother have, in fact, passed on to him an interest for the plastic and material aspect of every sculpture or architecture. DuilioDamilano says that he's always been  attracted by architectures since childhood.

His design path begins from the study of the light and I how this affects and moulds the shapes.

After graduating in 1998 he began his professional career as associate and in 1990 he opened the Damilano Studio. Over the years his work has developed, through collaborations with artists and deigners, into new architectural paths. Major areas of interest of Damilano Studio are the design of residential buildings, offices and commercial and receptive structures, both in Italy and abroad.
An ongoing collaboration has occurred with the architects Claudia Allinio, Alberto Pascale, Enrico Massimino, Jessica Pignatta.

+ All images and drawings courtesy Damilano Studio Architects | Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

Lebanon-based design firm .PSLAB beirut recently has completed the Iconic Rooftop Bar in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon. They have intervened on the project by creating and manufacturing custom lighting products, giving the space a distinctive new mood.

• .PSLAB design and manufacture bold custom products for reinvention of one of Beirut's most famous clubs
• Three spatial layers of black steel lamps create dramatic visual intervention
• Elegant design reveals itself as customers explore the space

Image courtesy .PSLAB Beirut

In 2011, legendary open-air Beirut club White has been re-branded and renovated, and the iconic original location reinvented as cocktail bar and restaurant Iris. The owners invited .PSLAB to create custom lighting products for the famous rooftop in central Beirut. In few months, .PSLAB's product design team created a strong set of interventions that have given the space a distinctive new mood.

Image courtesy .PSLAB Beirut

The site

The open air rooftop bar is unusually narrow and linear, requiring a strong response to break up the space and respond to the outside environment. The line of the first area with its major central bar element enhances this linearity, and the perspective is very specific. On either side of the bar, depth is provided by the second table third seating areas with their stepped levels. From the entrance, any lighting solution will be partly concealed as the space recedes away from the viewer, but a strong insertion into the space will also define the mood as people enter the bar.

Image courtesy .PSLAB Beirut

The .PSLAB product response

A major insertion into the first area was made in the form of two lines of black steel pillars on either side of the bar, which gave a new dynamism to the linearity of the space and concentrated attention over the bar. A further key definition was provided by a line of upside-down V-shaped black steel fixtures finished with white bulbs, suspended over the bar by black cables. The point of the 'V' was further defined by the addition of a box to enhance the linear aspect created by lining up a quantity of these products.

In the second (table) area, the pillars also defined the space and its different levels. Projectors were fixed to the pillars to cast a softer light in these areas. The projector directions were defined by the columns, being fixed on one side so that they were hidden from the approaching viewer. Dynamism and rhythm was given as the viewer discovers the projectors slowly as he walks further into the space.

In the third (seating) area, the products rose up from the floor in clusters of three on long black stems, providing intimate downlighting.

Image courtesy .PSLAB Beirut

Outcome

These rigid, assertive insertions are nevertheless sensitive responses to the realities of the space. The columns give an overall smoothness to the rooftop's layout, and a sense of balance. The elegant lines of the products above the bar and the visible bulbs on all the products also give a warmer aspect to the lighting.

Image courtesy .PSLAB Beirut

+ About .PSLAB + Iris

.PSLAB

Founded in 2004, and with 100 team members working out of four city bases in Europe and the Middle East, .PSLAB are designers and manufacturers of site-specific lighting products. Our work can be found in private homes in London, conceptual boutiques in Antwerp, restaurants in Cairo and art galleries in Beirut – and in gardens, events and public spaces worldwide. We have also been internationally awarded for many of our lighting products.

Our creative and technical teams work together on every aspect of product development, from concept to construction. This gives us the edge that is the core of our identity – our pieces are individual to particular spaces, and are manufactured by us, in our private factory.

Iris

In June 2006 Lebanese FNB concept management company Add Mind opened a new open-air club on the rooftop of the Downtown tower block that houses An Nahar, one of Beirut's biggest daily newspapers. The club, White, was one of the first post-Civil War venues to showcase a high-end mixture of fashionable entertainment and modern club music, quickly becoming a by-word for Beirut's resurgent glamorous nightlife.  In 2011, the club has moved locations, and .PSLAB was invited to create custom lighting products for the reinvention of the space as a more downbeat lounge bar and restaurant.

+ All images courtesy .PSLAB