自建房丨意大利丨Studio Bressan

Italian practice Studio Bressan has restored and extended a historic farmhouse in Treviso, expanding its portico into a spacious, glazed dining room that blends contemporary and traditional materials.

Nestled among the hills and vineyards of Asolo, the owners of the stone farm building tasked Studio Bressan with transforming it into a contemporary home, named Casolare Biordo Vecchio.

Retaining as much of the existing structure as possible, the interiors were overhauled and opened up by the creation of a glazed garden room that studio founder Emanuele Bressan said "does not mimic, but respectfully complements."

Studio Bressan has restored and extended a historic farmhouse in Italy

"The challenge was to introduce a contemporary architectural language without compromising the identity of the site," he told Dezeen.

"The aim was to enhance the memory of the building without nostalgia, instead highlighting its truest signs and character," Bressan continued.

"The result is a building that lives in the present while retaining legible traces of the past, restoring dignity to a rural construction and harmonising with both the understated beauty of the Asolo hills and the everyday life of its inhabitants."

The existing stone building was largely retained

The home's extension emerges from what was once its south-facing portico, transforming a small sheltered area into a double-height, glazed dining space that opens onto a travertine terrace.

Overlooking this glazed dining area is a living room located within the former stable, which sits slightly elevated atop a raised wooden floor and organised around a suspended fireplace.

This change in floor level demarcates the point where old and new meet, with the glass and metal structure of the extension contrasting the thick plastered walls and small, deep openings of the original farmhouse.

A glazed dining room was added to the structure

"At the heart of the new composition is the fireplace, which symbolically and physically ties together the old and the new," Bressan said.

"The former stable, now transformed into a living room, and the glazed portico turned dining area both orbit around this element, which serves as the fulcrum of the house, connecting spaces both horizontally and vertically," he added.

The dining area is overlooked by a balcony attached to the main en-suite bedroom above, alongside additional bedroom and study areas that overlook the surrounding gardens through new windows inserted behind the home's original openings and shutters.

The timber ceilings of the extension have been left exposed, as has its supporting steel structure, painted a shade of cream to match the rendered finish of the original home.

Steel and glass contrast with the existing stone and wood

"On one hand, original materials such as stone and wood were preserved; on the other, a 'critical restoration' allowed for the careful introduction of contemporary elements such as iron and glass," Bressan said.

"This dialogue between old and new resulted in a sober and coherent balance, conveying continuity without giving up on modernity," he added.

A balcony overlooks the new dining area

Elsewhere in Italy, UK practice Jonathan Tuckey Design previously restored and extended a farmstead in the North Piemonte Region and Solum created a coastal home with a "labyrinthine" alleyway.

The photography is by Emanuele Bressan.