RESIDENTIAL · HILLSIDE VILLA
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| Project Location | Pace del Mela, Sicily, Italy |
| Project Type | Residential architecture, hillside villa |
| Project Description | Hillside villa overlooking the Aeolian Islands, organised as a sectional landscape where architecture, terrain, pool and living spaces are woven together through a sequence of framed panoramic views. |
| Architect | UFO Architecture |
| Project Status | Unbuilt |
| Project Year | 2005 |
| Design Focus | Hillside architecture, landscape integration, sectional design, framed views, Mediterranean living, topographic architecture and panoramic outlooks |
| Landscape Strategy | The villa is embedded within the hillside, using the natural terrain to organise outdoor rooms, terraces, the pool and the primary living spaces. |
| View Strategy | Framed openings and carefully controlled sightlines capture views across vineyards and the Tyrrhenian Sea towards the Aeolian Islands. |
Casa Francesco is a hillside villa proposal in Pace del Mela, Sicily, positioned on a steep slope overlooking the vineyards of the north coast and the distant Aeolian Islands. The project explores the relationship between architecture, landscape and horizon, using the dramatic topography of the site as the primary generator of the design.
Rather than placing a building on the landscape, the proposal treats the house as an extension of the terrain itself. The hillside folds upward to form the pool terrace and principal living spaces, blurring the distinction between architecture and ground. The house becomes part retaining wall, part inhabitable landscape and part viewing platform, carefully anchored within the contours of the site.
The organisation of the villa is developed as a sectional composition. Between the landscape layer below and the roofscape above, an intermediate level contains the bedrooms, creating a sequence of spaces that gradually rise through the building. This layered arrangement allows every principal room to maintain a visual connection to the surrounding landscape while preserving privacy and protection from the Mediterranean sun.
Large framed openings act as architectural viewfinders, directing attention toward the vineyards, coastline and volcanic silhouettes of the Aeolian Islands. The changing qualities of light, weather and season become an active part of everyday life, transforming the panoramic landscape into a constantly changing backdrop to domestic occupation.
Casa Francesco reflects UFO Architecture's long-standing interest in building and landscape integration, where topography, structure and inhabitation are conceived as a single architectural system. The project explores how a Mediterranean villa can emerge directly from the land while creating a powerful connection between domestic life and the wider Sicilian landscape.
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