PRIVATE ENGAGEMENT

Michelangelo galliani, sculptor and professor at the academy of fine arts in Urbino, wanted to build a studio and atelier workshop next to his house/greenhouse, in which he could work outdoors on a daily basis and house not only his tools and instruments, but also some of his works and possible collaborators. thus a minimal, open work space was born. connected to the house in terms of dimensions and proportions, the atelier would temper and anchor itself in natural light, as a source of shadow for the sculptures and as a source of light for the sculptors’ thoughts.

the atelier must contain in its core the possibility of expanding spatially (in the two areas at the front of the portal and at the rear of the porch) and temporally (over time becoming a dwelling in the case). the structure, simplified to its limits, is a system of reiterated and closely spaced portals, capable of giving rhythm and partition to a large double-height nave, all opaque in its working plane and all illuminated in its double level towards the park.

the light, also mediated by a system of curtains, shapes the interior space and fills the work space. the wood, with its inclinated shaped structure, its wind bracings and anchoring details delineates the exterior of the volume homogeneously and extends to the large uncovered entrance portico, a kind of diaphragm, to support and place the large slabs arriving from the quarries and the vehicles needed to transport them.

on the back, the extension of the structure from closed becomes open but covered and later also uncovered, to mediate with the house and configure the most important work spaces: the protected open space of the porch and the completely open one, just a concrete surface in which the sculptor’s actions shape the material.

so the atelier is configured as a sequence: a sort of diaphragm at the entrance, to store the stones on east and the packages of the artwork to delivery on west, a closed double level space to study and conceive, a covered porch to smooth and an open air workspace to carve.

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