The design of the HHB - Happy House Apartment Block – reflects the desire to introduce a new identity as part of the substitution of a structure damaged by the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. The lot is characterised on one side by a direct visual relationship with the city walls, and on the other side by sweeping views over the valley below and the Sirente mountains. The entire volume is conceived as a compact form beneath a gabled roof with a diagonal ridge line. It contains 8 apartments of the same dimensions, with cellars and garages at grade, for a total area of 1,600 m2. As part of this architectural reconfiguration, importance was placed on the nature of dual views offered by the site.
The south-facing elevation reveals a decomposition, a system of smaller blocks that leave room for the external views from the stairwell and large private terraces, looking toward the Aterno Valley and surrounding mountains. A vertical cut on the north side marks the entrance, above which the external volume is stitched back together around a lightwell.
External finishes help characterise the dialogue between two different materials. The building was imagined with a white envelope, wrapped around external surfaces cut by projecting balconies and volumes at the sides that permit glimpses of the internal volume finished in grey brick. In the resulting darker areas, the arrangement of openings becomes casual and seemingly random, to accentuate the twofold nature of the project.
