MUTTI HOUSE IN MONTECHIARUGOLO, PARMA
A House built around a Tree
CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
The transformation of a traditional Italian farmhouse into a private residence has been an opportunity to showcase new approaches to blur the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. Greenary is a residence that revolves around a ten-meter-tall tree at the center of the house. Multiple living quarters encircle the tree’s leafy branches, all the way up to its top. To create the ideal setting for the tree to thrive, the old farmhouse has been completely redesigned to maximize natural light, installing a ten-meter-tall, south-facing glass wall.
The Greenary consists of seven terraced spaces, with three among them above the entrance and three below it. These dynamic, interconnected rooms reinterpret 20th-century architect Adolf Loos principle of the Raumplan, with nature at its core.
