RVTK / MESSNER ARCHITECTS

Architects: Messner Architects
Area: 500 m²
Year: 2023
Photographs: Karina Castro
Lead Architects: David Messner, Verena Messner
Engineering & Consulting > Structural: Ing. Florian Perkmann
City: Schlanders
Country: Italy

RVTK, designed by Messner Architects, is a renovated family residence located on the south-facing slope of Val Venosta Montesole Mountain, above the market town of Silandro. This project transforms a 1978 three-story house into a modern dwelling with three apartment units, offering spacious and bright living areas with stunning views of the surrounding landscape.

The family residence is situated above the market town of Silandro, on the south-facing slope of Val Venosta Montesole Mountain. Nestled on these steep, warm, dry slopes are single and multiple-family homes with gardens and vineyards. Opposite the valley, the Montetramontana mountain, with its lush meadows and forests, rises to impressive summits. The valley plain extends from east to west, gently inclining towards Resia Pass, occasionally interrupted by alluvial fans.

Originally built in 1978, the three-story house featured a gabled roof, a semi-subterranean basement, a first floor, and a second floor. In 2020, the family decided to renovate and expand the house to create space for three apartment units. This project involved demolishing and reconstructing the existing attic floor, elevating it by another half-story, and adding a roof deck.

The basement and first-floor apartments were renovated to allow for restructured floor plans, expansion in some areas, and new window openings. A new parking deck on the north side at the second-floor level provides additional parking and storage space, external access to the uppermost apartment, and serves as a roof for the entrance and first-floor parking spaces.

Renovations on the lower floors created generous, bright rooms with open private spaces. The basement apartment features south-facing living areas with a loggia leading to the garden. The first-floor renovation produced a living room that opens to a south-facing balcony and a weatherproof terrace to the west. An outside staircase connects the first floor to the garden. The second-floor apartment is accessed via the parking deck on the north side, with an inside staircase providing access to the lower floors.

A good detail at the end always seems natural. You do not see the effort in developing and convincing clients and executors.
Interview With David And Verena Messner Of Messner Architects

An unpolished standalone marble slate from the nearby Weißwasser Quarry in Lasa separates the entrance and living areas. Behind it, the second floor extends along a generous south-facing window. On the west side, there is a sheltered terrace. This floor includes a spacious living room with a kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a studio.

The open-floor attic space and the roof terrace are accessed via interior stairs. The plastered building foundation supports the rehabilitated floors, while the vertical expansion is clad in a curtain-wall facing made of larchwood boards and folded raw aluminum elements.

Now occupied by different generations, the house ensures plenty of privacy through its open space layout, development, and facade arrangement. Generous windows on the south side of all floors open towards the Montetramontana mountain and the valley plain, while recesses create sheltered outdoor areas. Each floor boasts unique features, including spectacular views, terraces, gardens, and loggias.