After 30 years in their farmhouse outside Bolzano, in northern Italy, and with their children grown up, Josef Ebner and Angela Sabine Staffler found themselves with surplus space and decided to convert part of the property for rent. So they created two apartments in their existing house (where they still live) and a pair of mini-residences in a new building, catering to tourists who flock to the mountains of South Tyrol. Though the couple had no particular intention that architecture should itself be a draw, recalls Ebner, they wanted “something special” and called in architect Peter Pichler, who had recently established his own office in Bolzano after working for Zaha Hadid.
The new houses back up against a swimming pool shared with the preexisting main house. The rear facade is made of toughened glass bonded to an inner layer of regular mirror glass and has a ventilated cavity behind it.
Each of the 430-square-foot units is essentially one space, with sliding doors and drapes that can close off the bedroom, bathroom, and closet. The wood-framed houses are cantilevered off a concrete base and seem to hover 6 inches off the ground.
The roof’s spline curve, a favorite of architects fluent in parametric design, and the smile-like curves of the two sides add a sensual touch to the more rigid geometry of the front and back.