Annesso Rosso

Written by Omar Dahabra

Location: Loretello, Italy
Year: 2025
Architects: Mecozzi Verdini Architettura e Paesaggio
Photography by: Simone Bossi

The renovation of a traditional 1960s countryside villa in the Marche region became an opportunity to carry out a conversion project that indissolubly links the simplicity of rural life with a more contemporary way of living. The intervention tells a story of continuity and innovation, where past and present engage in dialogue with the surrounding landscape, breathing new life into a place rich in memories and traditions.

The focus of this project lies in the outdoor spaces behind the main building, once occupied by disused agricultural annexes that had served as shelters for tools and spaces for manual work.
The demolition of these volumes made it possible to open up the view, which now unfolds in all its breadth toward the evocative panorama of the Marche hills, extending to the majestic presence of Mount Catria. This visual openness becomes a key element of the project, merging architecture and landscape into a single living organism, one that engages in dialogue with the outdoors while embracing the genuineness and authenticity of agricultural work.

The landscape is articulated into three distinct areas, each with its own role and well-defined character:

- on one side, the natural hills, wild and unspoiled, representing the most ancestral and spontaneous dimension of the place;

- on the other, the domestic garden, designed with rustic species yet shaped by a contemporary aesthetic, introducing a new sensibility in the use of greenery, playing with forms and materials that both respect and enhance tradition;

- finally, the agricultural landscape, with its cultivated fields and vegetable gardens, serves a protective and filtering function toward the new architecture, finding with it a balanced and harmonious coexistence where human presence and nature meet. The new annex, built from concrete and iron, becomes the center of this renewed daily life. Its roof physically connects it to the main house — fully renovated while preserving its original character — and serves as a space for social interaction and as a terrace overlooking the landscape. This is not simply a physical connection, but a true symbolic bridge uniting two generations and two different ways of living and interpreting the countryside: the tradition of cultivated land and the desire for modern, open living. In this way, the intervention stands as an example of integration and dialogue between architecture, nature, and memory, bearing witness to the value of a project that embraces the past while looking toward the future with a contemporary and respectful vision. A Meeting of History, Creativity and Territory Loretello is a picturesque historic village nestled in the hilly Marche region, about 30 km inland from Senigallia.

Today, this small center hosts a vibrant community made up of artistic, entrepreneurial, and cultural initiatives that share an approach focused on research, quality, and attention to detail, distinctive elements that make them unique in their fields. Within the ancient medieval walls - and in their immediate surroundings - a refined restaurant, a small boutique hotel, a winery, and the residence of an artist who has chosen Loretello as home for several years coexist harmoniously. These realities integrate with the local community, deeply connected to the territory and custodians of a collective memory that remains alive and participatory. In this context, Annesso Rosso (Red Annex) fits in, an architectural intervention that engages in dialogue with the identity of the place, reinterpreting the boundary between tradition and contemporaneity with balance. The project discreetly references an almost brutalist aesthetic, while maintaining a strong connection with the surrounding rural landscape. Text description by the architects.

Source: www.divisare.com + www.mecozziverdini.com

Omar Dahabra
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