In the heart of Val Venosta, on the slopes overlooking Silandro, Messner Architects undertake a residential project that interprets the complex dynamics of multigenerational living through an architectural lens. Titled RVTK, the project arises from the desire of an extended family to reoccupy a inherited building—an edifice from the 1970s—adapting it to current needs while preserving its original spirit but updating it with contemporary languages and technologies.
David and Verena Messner, founders of the South Tyrolean studio, work in continuity with the surrounding natural and settlement context, reaffirming their design approach that is sensitive to local identities and the trajectories of everyday life transformation.
The intervention was developed around a principle of stratification—both material and generational. The original volume was preserved at its plastered base, which now houses two renovated apartments with targeted measures for restoration and efficiency. The upper part, however, was entirely rethought: the attic was demolished and reconstructed, integrating an additional half-floor and a panoramic terrace overlooking the surrounding vineyards, where a third residential unit is located. The architecture thus adapts to new family arrangements without sacrificing a sober and coherent compositional legibility.
From an aesthetic and technical perspective, the house reveals a precise material articulation: the traditional plastered base is overlaid with a ventilated curtain facade that alternates raw aluminum elements and larch wood panels. This cladding adds visual depth to the facade, reflecting light and the valley’s climatic variations in a continuous play between opacity and metallic reflections. The facade’s composition is conceived not only in formal terms but also relationally: the openings become true framing devices that enhance views, ensure privacy, and orchestrate an architectural narrative made of loggias, gardens, terraces, and secluded corners.
The spatial layout and external space configuration aim to maximize living quality for all family members while maintaining functional separations between units. The house thus becomes a flexible container capable of accommodating the transitions of domestic life over time, without losing contact with the landscape. The intervention discreetly integrates into the surrounding built fabric, characterized by single-family and multi-family typologies, yet manages to stand out through a language that fuses construction rigor, respect for the place, and material experimentation.
Messner Architects is a studio based in Renon (BZ), founded in 2013 by David and Verena Messner. Operating at an altitude of 1,200 meters, the studio approaches each project—from urban scale to furniture detail—with a highly contextual approach. The dialogue between architecture, landscape, art, and design is central to their research, aimed at creating adaptable and sensitive spaces that respond to the needs of people and places.
For more info: www.messnerarchitects.com
CREDITS
Project: RVTK
Architect: Messner Architects
Location: Silandro, Val Venosta, Italy
Year: 2023
Photograph: Karina Castro
