Within the lofty walls of a disused factory in Lendinara, in the province of Rovigo in Northern Italy, QB Atelier carved out a home. The PDS House project weaves itself among fragments of industrial memory and spatial constraints, offering an original reinterpretation of the relationship with the surrounding landscape.
Built within a masonry “box” that prevents direct views of the city, PDS House is conceived as a sequence of openings and closures that frame sightlines, establishing an ideal connection with the greenery of the public park beyond the entrance wall.
The garden, conceived as an open-air green room, defines the new residence, which takes its form from one of the old factory buildings. Built with a hybrid structure of timber and steel and contained within the tall perimeter walls, the house echoes the profile of the former industrial architecture. Invisible from the street, it finds in the garden its light and air, giving life to an elegant and generous space.
Serving as a link between the generous double-height living room and the garden, and between the house and its natural surroundings, is a striking glass wall framed by a timber structure. At the top of this internal façade, the industrial profile echoes the one visible from the street side.
The theme of landscape directly inspired the project, which distilled elements of the natural environment into the site, thereby inventing the conditions for this unusual new urban residence. The client, owner of the company that once occupied the premises decades ago, had envisioned the complete demolition of the existing structure. QB Atelier instead proposed an unexpected solution — one that reactivated the site’s industrial memory and transformed its constraints into opportunities.
The new construction takes shape as a compact volume within the preserved outline of the existing wall, which has been structurally reinforced. Within this framework, the apartment unfolds across two floors, creating an interplay of volumes that extend into the adjoining building and a small rear courtyard. The entire house reaches toward the garden. This expansive internal façade, emphasizing the building’s vertical rhythm, continues seamlessly into the roof structure, underscoring the twin-gabled profile that corresponds to the wall facing the square. From the outside, before passing through the small iron door, the house remains completely hidden from view.
“The project is guided by an idea of landscape that unfolds through a play of closure and openness of view,” say architects Filippo Govoni and Federico Orsini of QB Atelier.
QB Atelier’s design for this house was developed by balancing the desire to preserve and reinterpret industrial memory with the many constraints of the site, the residential character of this part of the city, and its inherent aspiration toward landscape. The measure of this balance defines the project, which takes shape through an idea of architecture that — free from commonplace notions — focuses on the environmental condition. While evoking themes deeply rooted in the urban culture in which QB Atelier’s young founders are immersed, beginning with their Ferrara background, the secret garden here is not so much a representation of a sheltered place or a nostalgic paradise lost, but rather a symbol of a necessary natural environment — one that becomes an architectural device essential to the very condition of contemporary dwelling.
Photography by Pietro Savorelli.
Like what you see? Get it first with a subscription to aspire design and home magazine.