On the gentle slopes of Albinea, in the Reggio Emilia countryside, NATOFFICE shapes a new residential language with the HPBA project, a complex of three apartments that integrates into the landscape as an architectural device sensitive to the context. Led by Christian Gasparini, the studio approaches design as a continuous conversation between history and contemporary vision. In this intervention, architecture becomes a medium—a threshold space between nature and dwelling—reinterpreting the archetype of the portico in a functional and poetic way.
The conceptual core is precisely the portico, a traditional element that here transforms into an urban diaphragm, a covered threshold oriented southward, capable of mediating between domestic space and garden. It is not merely an auxiliary loggia but a true settlement matrix that defines the entire complex’s compositional layout. The project is articulated through juxtaposed blocks connected by a linking element—the staircase—and shaped in height by a single inclined roof that harmonizes volumetric discontinuities into an organic system.
The distinction between different functions translates into an elegant volumetric composition: the resting spaces condense into a taller body—almost a residential tower—while the living areas stretch horizontally, transforming into a suspended platform that embraces the greenery. This articulation creates a continuous play of full and empty, rootedness and lightness, verticality and horizontality.
One of the most evocative elements is the panoramic inclined roof, which follows the natural orientation of the internal functions and amplifies their dialogue with the outside. This architectural gesture captures the morning light from the east and creates a visual and perceptual filter between inside and outside, transforming the everyday experience of inhabited space. The natural, mutable, atmospheric light becomes the protagonist of the composition, shaping materials and surfaces, and conveying a poetic, dynamic, and sensory domesticity. It is not merely a residential project but an exercise in contemporary living that observes the landscape and allows itself to be shaped by it.
Founded by Christian Gasparini, NATOFFICE is distinguished by a multidisciplinary approach that integrates design, theory, and experimentation, addressing residential, urban, and landscape themes with attention to the context and the relationship between people, places, and matter. The studio has received numerous awards and actively participates in the national and international architectural debate, contributing with an evolving and sensitive vision of contemporary architecture.
For more info: www.natoffice.it
CREDITS
Project: HPBA
Architect: NATOFFICE
Location: Albinea (RE), Italy
Year: 2024
Photograph: Filippo Poli
