NIR House at Ragusa by Giuseppe Gurrieri and Nunzio Gabriele Sciveres

Description of project by Giuseppe Gurrieri and Nunzio Gabriele Sciveres

Nir House is an apartment located on the fifth floor of a condominium built in the historic centre of Ragusa. The building takes up the spaces once occupied by an important town house that in the 1960s was the subject of a questionable particular and reconstruction operation.

Only the former portal remains from the pre-existing building through which there is now access to the condominium staircase. As this is on the left side of the building, it establishes a single lateral access to all the apartments and creates difficulties in terms of moving about and the distribution of internal spaces.

The building overlooks the Piazza della Cattedrale and as a result the apartments are characterized by long corridors leading from the entrance that bisect the spaces to ensure that the rooms are as habitable and comfortable as possible.

The apartment which was the focus of the work has a living room that as well as overlooking the cathedral is connected via the rear of the building to a covered terrace; this double exposure ensures that a considerable amount of light reflects into the room thanks to the flooring in glossy blue and white ceramic tiles similar in design to the Copacabana calçadão.

Having decided not to alter the layout of the living room, it was decided to modify the connecting area by treating it as an urban space to be transformed according to requirements. Therefore the design focuses on the corridor which expands at the entrance creating a small reception area and which then narrows in line with the bedrooms finally to open up and flow into the large living room.

The remaining space is occupied by a service block that contains the kitchen and the pantry and from which sliding glass and wood panels come out that isolate the rooms according to requirements as and when.

This block marks the boundary between the old floor which it was decided to maintain and the new wooden floor whose design, alongside that of the false ceilings, emphasizes the concept of expansion within the connecting system.