Angelo Mangiarotti, Villa Bianchi, Piadena, Cremona, Italy, 1968. (view on google maps)

Born in Milan, Italy in 1929, Angelo Mangiarotti graduated from the Architecture School of Politecnico di Milano in 1948. As an architect, urban planner and designer, he mainly focused on the industrial process for buildings and design which earned him awards in Italy and abroad. The main concept in Mangiarotti’s architecture was established through the correct use of matter and technique.

This house in Piadena, between Cremona and Mantua, is occupied by eight people, a couple with four children and two grandparents. The living-room is 3,5m high, while the other rooms are 3,05m high. The supporting roof elements rest on conical steel columns, topped by a solid-steel headplate. The roof panel elements are of reinforced concrete. The air cavity between the two ceiling elements contributes to better heat insulation and is used for the installation of power lines. The gables of concrete are faced with ceramic panels.

The vertical walls of brick and the built-in cupboards are flexibly installed underneath the ceiling. The connections between walls and ceilings have been designed in such a way that ceiling movements are not transmitted to the walls. The gap between ceiling and walls is clearly visible in the illustrations. Nevertheless, the flexibility in the disposition of the walls is not optically apparent in the supporting construction because the masonry creates such a solid effect as if its function were to carry the roof load.

References:

• http://retro.seals.ch/digbib/view2?pid=buw-001:1974:28::780
• http://www.studiomangiarotti.com/
• http://www.educational.rai.it/lezionididesign/designers/MANGIAROTTIA.htm

Reviewed March 2017 by:

Sofiane Décombas-Deschamps

Darija Malesevic

Valentijn Veragten

Lode Borghs