Villa RA by MORQ

In 2001 three Roman architects, Matteo Monteduro, Emiliano Roia, Andrea Quagliola, founded MORQ. The studio, which has one office in Rome and the other in Perth, Australia, is based on a precise idea of design:

"Fundamental elements of our way of designing: the living space, the physical space made of matter and light, and, as their synthesis, the background, the daily scenographic "backdrop" in which people are protagonists. One of our strengths, even in our work in other countries, is the study of materials, with our sensitivity that has its roots in Rome, whose exteriors, for us, are like interiors. The style and ideas that characterize us came down, from time to time, to the reality in which the project is realized: from the Calabrian territory, overlooking the Mediterranean, to a suburb of Western Australia".

The perfect example of this philosophy is Villa RA. The house is located in Squillace, Calabria, in a rural area with the mountains of Aspromonte to the west and the sea to the south. Conceived as a summer retreat, the project is firmly rooted in the Mediterranean landscape, almost getting lost in it, especially thanks to Cocciopesto, a type of plaster chromatically similar to the ground, obtained through rigorous sampling and testing. The material covers both the inside and the outside, giving an extreme homogeneity to the solid volume of the structure. Returning to the outside, the surroundings of Villa RA develop around granite stones and oak trees, plus a bush of autochthonous plants, rosemary, wild grass and prickly pear.

The house is gradually articulated towards the sea, opening up more and more spaces and multiplying the faces. Approaching the house from the north-west side, its appearance is rather closed, sealed by a thick wall that mitigates the passage of hot days and cool nights.