This project by Bongiana Architetture in the countryside of Padua, protects the traces of the past while opening up to the possibility of new stories.
A Brother, a Sister is a renovation and restoration project that originates from an old farmhouse located in the countryside near Padua, within the agricultural landscape of the Venetian plain. Long abandoned, the building has been reimagined as a place of relationships and sharing, designed to host weekends of togetherness, extended family meals, celebrations, gardening activities, and daily rituals that strengthen bonds across generations.
At the heart of the project lies the aia—the traditional outdoor courtyard once dedicated to agricultural work, here reinterpreted as a collective space: a domestic square for meeting, playing, and sharing.
Facing this common ground are two new housing units, designed for two different families who, while living in proximity and enjoying communal life, still preserve their own independence and privacy.
The architectural approach is deliberately essential, at times even brutalist.
The interiors were stripped down to their bare structure, left exposed to create large double-height spaces that restore a sense of openness and freedom. The intervention does not erase the memory of the past but enhances it through simple, direct material choices: bespoke iron lamps, a concrete kitchen, and frugal objects that echo the sobriety and rawness of the rural setting.
Special care was devoted to the treatment of existing surfaces. Irregular plasters, brick walls, wooden doors, and original floors were preserved, maintaining their ability to narrate the passage of time. Where interventions were necessary, restoration was carried out in an almost calligraphic manner: precise, minimal gestures capable of restoring continuity without overpowering the whole.
The walls proudly retain their imperfections, old doors remain in dialogue with new ones, and the marks of time become part of the building’s renewed life.
This approach extends to the treatment of window and door frames. Many original elements were salvaged and reinstalled, alongside new iron details designed with extremely slender profiles. Frames, railings, and constructive details appear as minimal, almost graphic lines, establishing a dialogue with the roughness of the existing materials.
These subtle signs introduce a contemporary language that does not impose itself but rather accompanies, merging memory and modernity with delicacy.
A Brother, a Sister thus becomes a careful balance between conservation and transformation: an architecture that protects the traces of the past while opening up to the possibility of new stories, celebrating simplicity as a true form of richness.
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Facts & Credits
Project title A Brother, a Sister
Typology Residential, Restoration, Rural
Location Padua, Italy
Architecture Bongiana Architetture
Photography Andrea Anoni
Text provided by the architects
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