Site: La Casa del Diospero
The CSR is housed in the Casa del Diospero, 50 km from Rome in the heart of the Sabine Hills, facing Roccantica, an ancient village situated in a vast and protected natural area, just a few kilometres from the Benedictine Abbey of Farfa.
The Casa del Diospero is open to presentations, exhibitions, projections, workshops, seminaries and to all those wishing to study and work creatively, in solitude or in company. The centre is surrounded by many hectares of land dotted with hundred-year-old olive trees.
The transformation of a small country house into a modern study centre required comprehensive architectural redefinition based on the regulation requiring respect for the original shape of what was a blocky, ochre building constructed on the remains of a small rural edifice and taking the form of a Roman suburban villa. With this project, the Mdaa studio paid thorough attention to the new purpose of the building, taking it back to the “zero degree”, reducing it to a primary form, to a simple abstract prism. At the same time, technical features were adopted to render the complex suitable for the new functions to which it was destined, with complete respect for the environment and an avant-garde approach to energy saving. Every aspect of the conversion was intended to take into account the dialogue between built volume and natural landscape.
The Casa del Diospero has two floors: the ground floor has been designed for cultural activities and meetings, with appropriately distributed spaces; on the first floor, large rooms provide accommodation for guests. Here there is a very extensive panoramic terrace overlooking the surrounding valleys and the village of Roccantica. On the east side of the building, terracing has been constructed, following the slope of the land, from which audiences may watch shows and concerts staged in a small piazza as if it were the stage of an open-air theatre.
