In Arzignano, Italy, architect Marcello Galiotto and his wife Vittoria have transformed a 19th-century townhouse into a distinctive and intentionally unfinished living space that challenges conventional renovation practices. Purchased in 2024 for approximately one million euros, the 3,200-square-foot home along with its 1,100-square-foot outbuilding previously featured traditional finishes such as marble, marmorino plaster, iron handrails, and paneled wood doors from a 1970s renovation.
Rather than preserving the existing bourgeois aesthetic, Galiotto, a founding partner of the Italian architectural firm AMAA and visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, embarked on a comprehensive reimagining of the property. The renovation process was unconventional, with design decisions made collaboratively and dynamically on site, foregoing detailed blueprints in favor of daily adjustments akin to working on a full-scale architectural model.
Central to the redesign was a reconfiguration of the stairwell, where Galiotto removed the traditional iron railings, portions of plastered walls, and marble flooring to create wide openings and voids. These cutouts evoke the fragmented interventions of artist Gordon Matta-Clark and alter the flow between rooms, fostering a sense of openness. Above the stairwell, a concrete dome topped with an oculus was installed to introduce natural light.
The architect intentionally preserved rough textures and unfinished surfaces, including exposed terra-cotta bricks and torn plaster edges, which contrast with polished elements such as a Belgian hammered-steel fireplace from the 1950s and a plywood range hood framing a kitchen pass-through window. Throughout the residence, walls were partially demolished to redefine spatial boundaries, while a suspended tarped bathroom exemplifies the deliberate embracing of incompleteness.
A three-story bookshelf anchors a ground-floor home office, with slots carved in the floors above to integrate the floors vertically. The second floor contains the main living areas, where exposed metal shelving and artistic touches, including a black-and-white mural by German artist Stefan Marx emblazoned with the words “Rare Pleasures,” contribute to the home’s eclectic character. The top floor features a raised dressing room with rubber flooring and yellow clothing racks illuminated by a second oculus, connecting to adjacent bedrooms.
Externally, Galiotto streamlined the facade and introduced a striking garden design with silver-painted plastic concrete tubes repurposed as sculptural elements and an exaggerated downspout that channels rainwater into a visually dynamic feature. The outbuilding serves as studio and entertainment space, linked to the main house by a concrete bridge and topped with a roof terrace.
The entire project has incurred construction and deconstruction costs totaling roughly 1.2 million euros (around $1.35 million). Galiotto emphasizes the flexibility and adaptability of their home’s unfinished quality, allowing the space to evolve along with the family’s changing needs. He also notes that the openness accommodates everyday life’s unpredictability, such as scattered belongings, providing a balance between prepared structure and personal interpretation.