{"id":196233,"date":"2022-05-04T09:21:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T13:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_project&p=196233"},"modified":"2022-11-10T12:17:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T17:17:46","slug":"sbga-blengini-ghirardelli-collaborates-with-valerio-berruti-on-the-artists-live-work-space-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/sbga-blengini-ghirardelli-collaborates-with-valerio-berruti-on-the-artists-live-work-space-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"SBGA | Blengini Ghirardelli Collaborates With Valerio Berruti on the Artist\u2019s Live\/Work Space in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Paneling
Paneling and flooring of cast on-site concrete surround the atelier portion of the home and studio of artist Valerio Berruti, who\u2019s over\u00adlooking his polystyrene sculptures representing his two children, Nina and Zeno, a ground-up project in Alba, Italy, by SBGA | Blengini Ghirardelli. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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May 4, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Chiara Dal Canto<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Lea Anouchinsky\/Living Inside<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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SBGA | Blengini Ghirardelli Collaborates With Valerio Berruti on the Artist\u2019s Live\/Work Space in Italy<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Valerio Berruti has always wanted to be an artist. Piedmontese by birth, the 45-year-old Italian sculptor-painter is firmly rooted in his profession\u2014when he exhibited at the 53rd Biennale di Venezia in 2009, he was one of the youngest participants\u2014and his homeland. He is also open to experimentation and collaboration, which is revealed in two recent projects. One is at Cracco, the Michelin\u2013star Milanese restaurant owned by famed chef Carlo Cracco. There, in the eatery\u2019s semicircular lunette windows overlooking the city\u2019s thriving Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade, is Credere nella luce, or Believe in the light, three figures of girls, frescoed and backlit, that are not only a message of hope in this pandemic era but also evoke the magical moment of childhood, a constant theme in Berruti\u2019s oeuvre. \u201cThis is the first time I used direct light in a work,\u201d he says. \u201cBelieve in light and science. This is my invitation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milan happens to be the home base of architect Giuseppe Blengini, cofounder of the firm SBGA | Blengini Ghirardelli<\/a> and an integral collaborator in the second of Berruti\u2019s recent projects: his home in Alba. The Piedmontese town is where Berruti was born and where he first discovered\u2014and fell in love with\u2014Blengini\u2019s architectural vision, in a shop he designed there that no longer exists. Blengini was invited to dinner at Berruti\u2019s house at the time, a small 18th-century deconsecrated church in nearby Verduno that the artist had converted into his residence and studio. During the evening, Blengini, who\u2019s also passionately Piedmontese, noticed a detail: a window that connected the atelier and the former sacristy. And that\u2014the perfect demarcation, clear but not too much, between intimate space and working space\u2014was the jumping off point for the new home and atelier he would build in Alba for Berruti and his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hans
Hans J Wegner\u2019s CH33 chairs are among \nthe seating in the study adjoining the atelier, its skylight shaped like the house. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unique and complex, the resulting 5,000-square-foot structure is the product of four years of close four-handed work, a dialogue made up of flying notes, sketches drawn on restaurant napkins, and phone calls between artist and architect when Blengini traveled around the world to his firm\u2019s other construction sites. \u201cFor this project, Valerio was the client and my assistant at the same time,\u201d Blengini recalls smiling. Indeed, Berruti was on-site every day, following the group of local artisans and construction step by step. The 5-acre site itself was chosen for its peaceful and panoramic qualities\u2014vineyards rising toward the house, fields of meadows all around, the hills of Alba stretching into the distance. These aspects dictated the basic lines of the residence, the orientation of its spaces, and the openings to the outside. In fact, its stepped, three-story form \u201crecalls the terraced hills ringing the Piedmont region,\u201d Blengini notes. The roof folds its pitches like origami to create an observatory terrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the need for a new home was Berruti\u2019s growing family. \u201cWith the birth of our two children, Nina and Zeno, we had to change from the church residence.\u201d (His drawings, paintings, and sculptures, by the way, reproduce images essentially from his everyday life and family affections.) It encompasses three bedrooms and three bathrooms across its three levels and is better separated yet still connected to Berruti\u2019s studio, thanks to Blengini\u2019s thoughtful plan. \u201cMy years of training have taught me to dare, not to fear obstacles, and rather find solutions without preconceptions,\u201d the architect says. Berruti adds, \u201cLiving and working in contiguous spaces offers great advantages. If I happen to wake up at night pushed by a new idea and the desire to make something happen, going down to my atelier is easy. It also applies to the time I dedicate to my children, since proximity allows me to be with them more easily.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cast
Cast concrete also forms the stairway treads down to the dining area, where the pendant fixtures have been designed by Berruti and architect Giuseppe Blengini. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Materials throughout\u2014local sandstone, concrete, oak\u2014are pure and honest, in step with the natural mediums Berruti employs in his artwork\u2014jute, steel plate, plaster. \u201cWith the same cement the mixers produced for the concrete, I created panels to cover the wall that leads from my atelier to our home,\u201d the artist recalls. The large, rectangular panels could be a contemporary art installation themselves. They\u2019re gently illuminated by an asymmetrical skylight, its trapezoidal shape \u201crecalling the geometry of the house,\u201d the architect says, that helps naturally brighten the studio, as it\u2019s partially below-grade. Berruti\u2019s finished and in-progress works are peppered throughout, like Fragments, his site-specific work of 196 reinforced-concrete and fresco tiles that lines the short stairway leading from the studio to the home\u2019s living quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, the dominant material changes from cast on-site concrete to oak, all of which came from a single batch. It composes the flooring, paneling, and furnishings\u2014the latter, Blengini says, \u201c99 percent of which was designed by Valerio and me.\u201d These include the stools along the kitchen island, the dining area\u2019s oval table and pendant fixtures, the main bathroom\u2019s built-in vanity, and the beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all evidence of Berruti\u2019s humanist approach\u2014in his art and his life\u2014that makes him open to new ideas and alliances, whether with chefs, children, or world-class musicians (last year, he and pianist Ludovico Einaudi created The Carousel in Venaria Reale together). A similar alchemy must have occurred when he met Blengini, and what materialized is a courageous architectural work. \u201cIt combines taste and needs,\u201d the architect says, \u201cin a decisive way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Paneling
Paneling and flooring of cast on-site concrete surround the atelier portion of the home and studio of artist Valerio Berruti, who\u2019s over\u00adlooking his polystyrene sculptures representing his two children, Nina and Zeno, a ground-up project in Alba, Italy, by SBGA | Blengini Ghirardelli. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"The
The kitchen stools are another custom design by Berruti and Blengini. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Woodwork
Woodwork in the living area and the kitchen is oak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Along
Along the stairway that leads from the atelier to the home\u2019s living quarters is Berruti\u2019s Fragments, composed of 196 reinforced-concrete and fresco tiles. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Above
Above a work table in the atelier is the fresco on jute What remains \nof the rainbow, from 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"A
A detail shot captures a close-up of the Zeno sculpture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Some
Some of the dining area\u2019s Gio Ponti Superleggera chairs face the hills of Alba.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"1-cm-square
1-cm-square mosaic tile backs the custom oak vanity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"The
The main bedroom features a custom bed and Berruti\u2019s The daughter of Isaac, which he made for the 2009 Biennale di Venezia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Hugs,
Hugs, a wall of reinforced-concrete bas-reliefs, appears in the main bathroom, alongside the walk-in closet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"The
The 5,000-square-foot house is clad in Langa, a local sandstone, and set on 5 acres. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
PRODUCT SOURCES from front<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/h6><\/div>\n\n\n\n
cassina<\/span><\/a>: chairs (dining area)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Doimo<\/span><\/a>: sofa (living area)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
elica<\/span><\/a>: hood (kitchen)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
carl hansen & s\u00f8n<\/span><\/a>: chairs (study)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
flos<\/span><\/a>: pendant fixtures<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Duravit<\/span><\/a>: sink fittings, tub (bathroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Gessi<\/span><\/a>: sink<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Bianca<\/span><\/a>: bedspread (bedroom)<\/span><\/section>\n\n\n\n
rubelli<\/span><\/a>: cushions<\/span><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n