In the small town of Marene, in the province of Cuneo, a 1950s house finds new life thanks to a renovation project signed by FLUIDO ARCH Architettura, a studio founded by architects Claudio Bosio and Elisa Mensa. The result is “SuperSerious,” a house-studio that combines design rigor and playful spirit, matter and memory, everyday life and experimentation.
The project begins with a small historic villa, transformed into a multifunctional residence capable of hosting not only private life but also the architects’ studio. Starting from this dual vocation, the intervention reinterprets the concept of home as a place of doing and thinking in a contemporary key, opening up new ways of organizing space. The internal layout is intentionally unconventional, arranged over multiple levels and designed to promote visual and functional continuity between rooms.
The beating heart of the ground floor is the kitchen, the gravitational center around which the functions of the living area revolve.
Inspired by typical 1950s kitchens but reinterpreted with contemporary sensitivity, the kitchen develops in a compact and highly functional space, where every element is custom-designed and in dialogue with the house’s history. Emphasizing its intimate and introspective character is a bow-window—an suspended space between inside and outside that opens onto the garden, dominated by a large persimmon tree. Here, between glass and branches, one has the feeling of being in a small treehouse, immersed in nature and silence.
The project plays with levels, introducing mezzanines, double heights, and diagonal openings that connect different environments. The sleeping area, for example, extends over three offset levels, creating a continuous sequence between resting space, studio, and wardrobe. The recovered attic hosts new living functions, contributing to a dynamic and flexible living experience.
Particular attention was paid to the integration of old and new, both in terms of materials and finishes. The architects preserve traces of the existing structure, such as original plasters and floors, juxtaposing them with contemporary elements that highlight the contrast. Green, a recurring element in the studio’s poetic, enters the house literally through large south-facing glass walls, blending with the architecture in an osmotic relationship between landscape and built form.
The result is a project that rejects homogenization and presents itself as an intimate, multifaceted narrative, where each environment reflects a choice, a gesture, a memory. “SuperSerious” is an invitation to rethink domesticity as a narrative space, where architecture and daily life meet, converse, and mutually transform.
FLUIDO ARCH Architettura is a studio founded in 2012 by Claudio Bosio and Elisa Mensa, both graduates from Politecnico di Torino. Based in Marene, the studio is distinguished by a comprehensive approach that ranges from renovation to construction management, with particular attention to energy requalification and the recovery of existing building heritage. The quality of space, attention to detail, and full integration between furnishings and architecture are the pillars of their design approach.
For more info: www.fluidoarch.com
CREDITS
Project: superserious
Architect: FLUIDO ARCH Architettura
Location: Marene (CN), Italy
Year: 2022
Photography: Ramona Elena Balaban, Andrea Segliani
