This residential complex, made up of three villas built in the Roman countryside, in Formello, rereads the idea of the pavilion as a lightweight structure that supports a butterfly roof (from the Latin papilionem, ‘butterfly’).
In this design, the portico does not only describe the space in front of the house, but also the space above it: it is properly a shell, which allows the houses to transcend their physical bodies, making them seem even lighter, almost ethereal. As in the iconography of sacred conversation—where Saints are encased inside architectures framing the landscape in the background—these houses engage in conversation with living beings, drones, and landscape, and this latter element is molded by the ancient Etruscan engineers.
The memory of Etruscan waterways is impressed in the houses’ double roof, which is also a technological device: it allows drones to access the house from the sky, it blocks the wind, and filters the light of the sun. This projects allows to reflect on peripheral dwelling as a way to reaffirm the value of the countryside within a technological and digital society.
For further information please visit www.linamalfona.com.
PROJECT 3 Houses for Drones
ARCHITECTS Malfona Petrini
LOCATION Formello, Rome, Italy
YEAR 2017
LEAD ARCHITECT Lina Malfona
PHOTO: Matteo Benedetti, Gianluca Caravaggi
