Barozzi Veiga renovates an historical villa in Italy

The project by Barcelona-based studio creates a new white and pure “inhabited border”, rethinking the exhisting garden.

Barozzi Veiga has completed the renovation and extension of a music school located in the historical villa Casa Ragen, in Brunico, Italian South-Tirol. The project simply proposes the construction of a new “inhabited border”, which allows the characteristic urban tissue of Brunico – formed by the no­ble villas and sealed off gardens – to have continuity. The extension is a sober building that complements what already exists.

The extension consists of two floors: one is half-buried, and the other shapes the garden. The latter becomes the central space of the project, closely relat­ing the existent building and the extension. It is a wide and peaceful space, which creates through its comfortable atmosphere a space for studying, and an ideal place for concerts, shows or events. On the exterior, the new school is characterized by a continuous sober wall in which the new front door access is inserted, a delicate connection between the existent that will allow glimpse the interior garden. The rehabilitation of Casa Ragen features the new configuration of its interior patio. A new roof characterizes and transforms this space through a system of glass and adjustable slats that act as a light spreader.