The warm sun of Apulia, the green Itria Valley and a passion for greenery are the ingredients for the winter residence of a Dutch couple who chose Italy as their heartland. The rectangular shape of the long and narrow floor plan, limited the possibilities of natural lighting and air exchange as well as not meeting sanitation criteria, undermining living comfort resulting in its abandonment.

The renovation project and energy upgrading were an opportunity to experiment with a new way of inhabiting an intimate space through immersive greenery. The idea of emptying the central volume of the building, opening the rooms on multiple levels to light and air, with a double-height patio with skylight , ensured the quality and well-being of all the rooms it overlooks, while losing a minimal amount of surface area.

The green patio is a wind tower, a regulating element of hygrometric comfort in the different seasons that, in the summer season, sucks in cool air from below to expel warm air from above, while in the winter it is a solar greenhouse that captures light and heat inside to distribute it to the different rooms.

A suspended staircase, like a space-time spiral, lands on the patio, an “empty” space designed as a lush garden with species from the different tree, shrub and herbaceous planes. To name a few: Monstera deliciosa, Musa paradisiaca, Arecastrum romanzoffianum, Pheridophyta, Philodendron or Ficus repens, Vinca minor and Tillandsia on the walls.

A small fountain with aquatic plants gladdens the house with its noise.