Colorado Villa, a vacation home nestled in the majestic nature of Colorado: this is one of the latest projects worked on by noa* - network of architecture. Here, in the presence of the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains and surrounded by the extensive coniferous forests, it is common to come across the archetypal American vacation home, the so-called "A-Frame." This typology, which has become a symbol of weekend getaways from the city, calls for the steeply sloping roof to completely replace the walls in order to prevent the accumulation of the significant snowfall that characterizes the region. noa* reworks the steep roof pitches, the stylistic hallmark of the A-Frame, in a personal key and creates a cozy retreat to gather as a family and where to reconnect with nature
Colorado Villa: one roof, three generations. Diversified spaces and a wide exposure to the landscape
In the heart of the Rocky Mountains, in one of Colorado's most pristine landscapes, a villa for three generations takes shape: Colorado Villa, a reinterpretation of the iconic A-frame typology, a refined alternation of private and collective spaces, where the needs of the whole family find space
The challenge for the distribution of living functions turned out to be the coexistence of three different generations in an environment that was visually a single volume. The internal layout of the spaces had to flank the common areas, independent privacy zones for each of the households. In a perfect convergence between the client's needs and architecture, the team of architects decided to adopt for the architectural design of Colorado Villa the typology of the triangular house in a more complex interplay of intersections of volumes, resulting in a multifaceted spatiality where the level of privacy increases as one ascends. "We implemented the precise geometry and outward openness typical of the A frame, but at the same time we carved out smaller, unexpected, but still comfortable spaces within the large space, as in a matryoshka system," explains Andreas Profanter, noa* partner and project manager
The result is a prism with a triangular cross-section, 30 m long, that is intersected at several points by volumes with the same geometry. However, the architecture, which in its articulated volume is perceived as a single body, houses a completely autonomous private villa for the client couple and a family villa dedicated to their children and grandchildren. The entrance door on the eastern side of the house leads to the main distributive space: from here one can descend to the basement or head either to the patrons' villa or the family villa and then to the large communal living area. The ground floor of the private villa contains a living area, a private interior staircase, a kitchen with an island that extends outside into a barbecue area, and two offices oriented to the inner courtyard. The family villa, on the other hand, sees a large fireplace as the focal point of the ground floor, enjoyed by both the family kitchen to the east and the large living room to the west. The dining room has a space of its own, in the cozy wing north of the kitchen
The relationship with the surrounding landscape is constant, both thanks to the large windows arranged on all fronts of the house, which give continuously different perspectives, and to the blurring of boundaries between outside and inside, as for example in the living area, where part of the rock literally enters the room. On the second floor of the villa, aligned with the roof ridges, are five bedrooms. Each room has its own facilities, but the classic division of space into sleeping area
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