New York, November 1, 2011 - Richard Meier & Partners is pleased to announce the design for a new residence in Italy. The project is part of a complex designed by notable architecture firms from Europe and the US.

Villa Gardone is part of a villa ensemble in Gardone Riviera, Italy. The project is located approximately 300 meters from Lake Garda.  The residence sits on an east facing slope opening south towards the lake, and offering unique views of the water, the city center and the surrounding areas.

The villas’ visual relationship with the local context, the direction of the sun, and its position along a steep slope are key factors that have played a central role in the design.   As a design strategy, two rectangular solids were placed perpendicular to one another and then arranged on top of each other running parallel and crosswise to the slope of the terrain.

The living room and bedrooms are located within the top volume. This volume is placed perpendicularly to the slope to maximize the views toward the lake and also to take advantage of southern exposure and natural light. In contrast, the lower base like volume consists of a garage which is positioned parallel to the slope, opening up towards the access road. These volumes are then lifted apart from one another creating an intermediate level, which serves at the main entrance.

Every level has access to outside terraces with different orientations depending on their program, ultimately providing the users with varying views and privacy.

The Villa Gardone, as in some of our early residential projects, incorporates elements that reflect our design principles. The new residence in Lake Garda represent our continuous exploration of solid and void, transparency and opaqueness, light and texture, and the interrelation between the ephemeral with the physical world. The residential complex is projected to be completed by 2014.