Semicorte
Tall hornbeams envelop a four-story villa: a green skin that covers and protects the residence from the surrounding urban environment. Like the house, the garden that surrounds and intertwines with it also develops vertically. In the entrance hall, a ficus rises from the floor, occupying a double-height space, mirroring itself on one side in the holm oak just beyond the large window and on the other in the growth of a tetrastigma plant along an interior wall. Greenery unfolds as the horizon beyond every door, window, and terrace.
Beneath the hornbeams, geometric volumes of yew define the garden area, where a Japanese magnolia stands like a sculptural presence, and domes of enkianthus embellish a stone planter. Different shades of green overlap, punctuated in March by the lilac flowers of the magnolia and enriched in autumn by the red hues of the enkianthus leaves.
Hydrangeas and osmanthus complete the facades of the floors, blending with the bright leaves of the hornbeams. Frassinago has created a green envelope that protects the house from heat throughout the summer but sheds in winter, allowing light to filter in. At the end of February, the arrival of new leaves renews the house’s green skin every year.
