Villa Altissimo: Circumstance and Project

Addressing the challenge of architectural intervention in historical contexts, the project redefines heritage as a resource for the contemporary. It integrates short-term studio apartments, long-term duplex units, communal spaces, and an underground exhibition space. Ensuring continuity, the design uses the original walls of the historical building as a foundation, with their stones serving as both construction material and a means of unity. In this way, the new architecture creates cohesive spaces where artists can live, create, and engage with their surroundings.

Located 485 meters above sea level on a hillside near Turin’s city center, Villa Altissimo is a modest Savoyard villa shaped by partial interventions over time. The design acknowledges these historical layers while adding a contemporary stratum. The villa now hosts 8 studio apartments for short-term stays, while the adjacent chalet offers 3 duplex units for long-term residencies. The artificial terrace, carved into the hillside to create a flat plane where the villa originally stood, acts as a threshold between public and private realms, with workshops, a theater, a bar, and a restaurant located beneath. The wellness center, embedded into the hillside on the east side, bridges public and private spaces by expanding pre-existing excavated areas. It is composed of several simple voids interlinked to create a complex organism where water flows through the lower levels, forming pools. The exhibition space is conceived as a crypt—an underground world of simple geometric forms that evoke the ancestral origins of art, inspired by the marks of early humans etched with hematite on cavernous stone walls. This subterranean space provides a contemplative environment for contemporary artistic expression and serves as the central link connecting all areas of the complex. Designed with multiple entryways and openings, it mimics the organic nature of a cave, promoting fluid movement and visual connections throughout the site. By transforming the villa into a space of everyday life and artistic creation, the project challenges the musealization of heritage. It acts as a catalyst for cultural and social growth, fostering interaction between artists, visitors, and the local community while demonstrating the potential of contemporary design to breathe new life into historical settings.