FRANCESCO PAGLIARI writes: ‘The overall result is a multiple-feature architecture: multiple interrelated façades; abstract stereometric monumentality alongside homey light-filled interiors reaching out to connect with their surroundings: a sharp-angled monolith that is also an open, family-friendly holiday home. The striking materiality of these closed compact shapes is further accentuated by the use of unrendered concrete, the horizontal lines of the formwork still showing the veins and rough cut of the formwork, lending the manmade object an organic quality. The architecture is one with its terrain- its varied composition and natural color all dialogue with the landscape.’

Read on HERE.

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Architectural Record’s April Issue features a book review of NADAAA’s forthcoming book on Villa Varoise!

‘With its conversational tone, the exchange captured in the book manages to complement the images and drawings more successfully than is usual in a conventional monograph. The dialogue goes beyond a comparison of the houses and leads to discussions of the typology of the house itself. By doing so, it transcends the conceit of dueling dwellings, opening up a larger discourse on the practice of architecture. But it’s a fun read—both light and serious.
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The art of this book is that it can be enjoyed on several levels. It is a deep dive into the design process and the meticulous execution of one single house and its surrounding landscape, taken from initial concept and site strategies through drawings, diagrams, models, and construction details. [] But the book is also a manifesto—a reminder to all of us that as architects it is “our responsibility to change the status quo . . . to motivate the discipline, and produce not novelty, but innovation.” If you manage that, then the results of the design process just may be “better.”’

-Stella Betts, founding principal at LEVENBETTS

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