House on the Roof

What: expansion with the creation of a new Covered space
Who: private
Where: Milan - Italy
When: 2006
AREA: 300 sq. m
AREA49: Marilena Magalotti | m&a_mutti&architetti

Built on the roof of an office building, this house was conceived as an experimental laboratory. The techniques and materials developed for this project, in fact, went to build a sort of "abacus" of reference for the other interventions.

The theme to be tackled was to live on the flat roof of a pre-existing building with a history of construction, statics, plant engineering, technique, with which to establish a relationship so to speak "parasite".
The house is at an integral part of the garden and is designed to breathe and live with the change of seasons and temperature.

It is a sort of tent: a double covering creates an air gap and creates a constant chimney effect over time. The roof has a minimum inclination that allows the air to flow upwards. The PVC cover is also designed to respect these dynamics at the basis of natural cooling.
The greenhouses leaning against the house along the wall running from north to south play an important role in sound insulation. Built in light overhang, they prevent wind-borne noises from spreading because the fluid threads of the wind-borne air, thanks to the shape of the projecting structure, are repeated over the entire surface of the house, which is consequently in a soundproofed bubble and far from the noises of the nearby ring road.

The experimental approach is also clearly legible in the materials. 
The floor, for example, is a derivative of silicon, a material that is used for foundations, a self-leveling material, which does not need cuts or connection joints. In addition, the material is also an excellent thermal conductor for a radiant plate, which reduces air movement.
These examples describe the approach to an extensive research project compared to the equally comprehensive attempt to use new building techniques to meet the current biocompatibility needs of buildings.

Every construction detail of this project has been developed in almost the same way, from the wooden door bushings to the polystyrene panels of the floors, the exposed systems, the wooden bricks of the walls, the truck cover of the exterior lining.
The attempt was to demonstrate that such "devices" can also function from a functional point of view, i.e. to be a style.