32 Montes

32 Montes is a project located in a tiny village in Trentino, Italy. The project is composed of both a house and a public space. The house holds three bedrooms and two bathrooms and is spread through three floors. The public areas hold a vegetable garden, a public meeting room, a small store and a coworking space. The structure and materials for this project have been influenced by the vernacular architecture located within the town. Being a mountain village, Montes has a very small population. As a result, the aim of this project is to invite new residents to populate it and become more attractive to people currently living in cities. Thus preventing the possibility of Montes becoming a ghost town. In order to maximize the value which a user might place on a house in this location, another influence for the design choice has been the connection between the interior of the house and the exterior views of the mountains. The concept of the visible and invisible has been explored in this project both through the outer shell composed of rotating panels and the interior composition of the house. The outer panels are 2.7 meters tall and 40 cm wide and electrically rotate based on user’s needs through a central control panel. These can be programmed to open and close at specific times of the day. When closed, the structure appears entirely solid. When open, the structrure becomes “see through”, creating a hybrid strucutre. Invisible doors have been used throughout the house to appear as walls.