A 1970s Home In Saluzzo, Italy Receives A Modern Update

For Greek architect Eirini Giannakopoulou, a home is like a stage set: The building is fixed, but inside changes with the inhabitants. “Everything is designed around a new story,” she observes. Giannakopoulou has an architecture degree from the National Technical University of Athens, but she also studied scenography, and it informs her approach to interiors. It’s evident in the evocative work of SCEG Architetti, the studio in Turin, Italy, she founded with her husband, fellow architect Stefano Carera, in 2011; the name is an acronym of their initials.

A few years ago, SCEG’s portfolio caught the eye of a couple with a young family looking to give a dowdy house in Saluzzo, an hour south of Turin, its next act. “They needed a home with an identity just for them,” Giannakopoulou begins. “It was important that it feel open and have a strong connection with the outdoors.” The setting was beautiful, on a hill overlooking a garden and the medieval city, but the building, not so much. Dating to the 1970’s, the cement and brick structure was unwelcoming from outside and in poor condition—dark, musty, unremarkable—within. It needed such a complete overhaul that it might have made sense to raze it.

SCEG Architetti Creates An Energy-Efficient Design For This Renovation

The Italian government, though, offers substantial incentives to retrofit an existing structure and make it more sustainable. Giannakopoulou and Carera added a white gypsum facade and an external thermal insulation system over the existing brick, installed large triple-glazed windows, and put solar panels on the roof. Bright and modern, the 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom house now looks like a new-build—and produces enough energy to be almost entirely self-sufficient. But the real drama is inside.

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When Carera and Giannakopoulou first visited the house, they saw a wide but dreary living room facing the garden. Yet they later realized that the wood overhead was in fact a false ceiling dividing what was originally a double-height space. Previous owners had enclosed the living room to make it more heat efficient, leaving a dead area above it. The architects  opened it up to create a 23-foot-high volume, which revealed a kind of interior facade around the smaller floor upstairs. Carera and Giannakopoulou now had an intriguing set to work with.

SCEG took inspiration from the existing floor plan, which was a little funky, with two main floors and two half levels in between. “Step by step, you discovered the house in an interesting way. It had a sense of movement,” Carera recalls. The two changed the location of the entrance, but retained the half levels and the experience of a journey; the house gradually reveals itself as you walk through.

The living area can be glimpsed from the entry, but it’s only when stepping up onto the main level that the whole of the long, bright expanse can be seen. One side is furnished with a fireplace, built-in seating, and a chic cream-colored divan, while a round black table and ochre velvet–upholstered chairs by Florentine studio E-ggs form the dining area on the other end.

Discreet Windows Offer Privacy—and Views

Above is a second volume containing the bedrooms. SCEG set it behind a faceted drywall construction with two “windows,” so it resembles a facade. One window faces out from the main suite, the other from its bathroom; both overlook the living area. “We created ‘eyes,’” Giannakopoulou says. “These two spaces are completely private, yet are able to view what’s happening below, and the living area can see what’s happening above.” Talk about theater. 

A balcony at the top of the central staircase offers another viewpoint, with a wall just low enough that the client’s two young daughters can peer over it or call for their parents. SCEG installed a decorative lacquered-steel structure above it that resembles a pergola; it creates a human scale within the open void. The steel lines run throughout to become bathroom hooks or frame bookshelves, cabinets, and glass doors to the kitchen, enhancing the sense of movement that Carera and Giannakopoulou felt on their first visit.

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Color also plays a starring role. SCEG painted the volumes a calm, smoky green and the steel a deep blue, both evoking the hues outside. “The exterior is a white box, so it’s a surprise to find this green soul within,” Giannakopoulou notes. The same colors appear in the main bedroom, joined by Piero Fornasetti’s famous gray-and-white cloud wallpaper. The palette shifts to desaturated pink for the bedroom the girls share. (The third bedroom is for guests.) Back downstairs, similar tones appear in the blue-tiled kitchen, where the custom cabinets have pointed edges like the facets of the interior facade. Conical shapes on the slim black breakfast table and cherry-red Achille Castiglioni pendant fixture make the same subtle allusion.

With its spare aesthetic, the home might not appear to be child friendly. But Carera and Giannakopoulou, parents of two themselves, know their audience. In the girls’ bedroom, for instance, custom side tables resemble steps, designed to be climbed on. “It’s easier than saying ‘You can’t go up on this table,’” Giannakopoulou laughs. But she doesn’t believe in excessive guardrails: “It’s important to protect kids but also make them curious to engage with the space.” In a house like this, there’s much for players of all ages to discover.

PROJECT TEAM
TAULANT: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

PRODUCT SOURCES
FROM FRONT FLOS: SCONCES (LIVING AREA), PENDANT FIXTURES, SCONCE (STAIRWAY), TABLE LAMP (MAIN BEDROOM). FERM LIVING: SMALL WHITE TABLE LAMP, SOFA, RECTANGLE COCKTAIL TABLE (LIVING AREA). MINIFORMS: CHAIRS, TABLE (DINING AREA). MUUTO: ROUND COCKTAIL TABLE (LIVING AREA). HAY: TABLE (KITCHEN), MIRROR (POWDER ROOM). BISAZZA: FLOOR TILE, BACKSPLASH TILE (KITCHEN). &TRADITION: PENDANT FIXTURE (POWDER ROOM). CERAMICA CIELO: SINK. ESTILUZ: PENDANT FIXTURE (MAIN BEDROOM). 41ZERO42: FLOOR TILE (MAIN BATHROOM). TOM DIXON: PENDANT FIXTURE. THROUGHOUT LISTONE GIORDANO: WOOD FLOORING. ALPI: CABINETRY MILLWORK. COLE & SON: WALLPAPER.