Il Berlino is a deep place, it keeps the mystic of a full-filled historical place, vernacular and experimental. An antique house, a medieval village, once maybe a bodega, a Osteria, a secret passage from the Castle to the Fort of Ceva, of which it remains a little aperture in the garden, a trace of how the place has always been strategic and a crossroad. In the first decades of the past century, the building is transformed in a temporary stable for the local market, in the core of the community life. Then, years of abandonment, reign of cats and butterflies, a owl as a lonely guardian. Forgotten place until 2017, when it starts a slow and forbearing restauration, giving voice to the social nature of the house: 3 caves made of river stones and bricks, vaulted and wooden ceilings of medieval memory. Two rooms at the first level, where the choice to keep the traces of old painting, stone lavabo and fireplace makes the story of the place readable as a written page and frees the imagination to rebuild the life of the old families. A huge covered terrace leans on the garden, which is part of a secret green passageway at the bottom of Ceva’s castles, garden where natural and wild elements blurs with both medicinal herbs and flowers and artificial elements.

The project is harmonization between antique remains and introduction of breaking recycle elements: old blocks walkways, pallets fences, counter bar decoration. Tension and balance between memories and present and between the two directional axis: 

from the road – public, urban, grey – to the garden – natural, contemplative and intimate. 

From the entrance of the dimly lit underground caves, through central and white stairwell to the light, the high ceilings and the unexpected green vegetation’s wall in the summer or whiteness of the winter snow.