Architectural Record 2015-04

MIRROR HOUSES BOLZANO, ITALY PETER PICHLER ARCHITECTURE 73
the bed, increasing the sense of space without eating into the
precious volume allowance.
At 110 square feet, the bedroom is smaller than standards
would ordinarily allow but was permitted here, as the house
is considered one single room. The sliding wood-veneered
partition allows inhabitants to sleep cocooned behind it if
they choose, or wake up to the play of light and shadow across
the faces and fissures of the mountains beyond the orchards.
It is in this prospect that the true purpose of the twin
houses becomes clear. Stringent environmental regulations
and a contemporary concern for comfort demand a plethora
of mechanical and electrical equipment and a highly insulated
envelope. But with a great glass sliding door opening
each unit to the breeze, the houses offer their temporary
residents a taste of something like Thoreau’s rougher-hewn
Walden cabin, whose simplicity and intimate scale fostered
his sense of connection to the environment. In their outward
appearance, the Mirror Houses do little to blend in with their
surroundings—the opposite, in fact—but, from the inside,
the building seems almost to disappear, registering only as a
frame for the view. “There but not there,” one might say. ■
credits
ARCHITECT: Peter Pichler Architecture — Peter Pichler, Simon
Rice, Giancarlo Pellegrini, Erietta Papadopoulos, project team
ENGINEERS: SP3 Engineering (structural); Mayr Hansi (m/e/p)
CONSULTANT: Mauroner OHG (lighting)
FACADE CONTRACTOR: Metallritten
BUILDER: Bernard Bau
CLIENT: Angela Sabine Staffler and Josef Ebner
SIZE: 860 square feet
CONSTRUCTION COST: withheld
COMPLETION DATE: November 2014
SOURCES
MIRROR GLASS: Eckelt
ALUMINUM DOORS: Schüco
SLIDING ALUMINUM DOORS: Skyframe
CHAIRS AND TABLES: Konstantin Grcic for PLANK
INTERIOR AMBIENT LIGHTING: Artemide