Cascina Crocetta is a building dating back to the first half of the twentieth century, which still preserves the typical features of Lombard rural architecture: a rectangular courtyard layout, accessible through a single gate on the east side, around which the different wings are arranged. The single-storey buildings to the north and east were originally used as storage spaces and tool sheds; the south side is characterized by a two-storey volume fronted by a double-height portico with exposed brick pillars, which housed the stables on the ground floor and the hayloft above. On the west side, in a more representative position, stand two adjoining manor houses, both on two levels, together with the equipment storage area.
The restoration project focuses on the refunctionalization of one of the manor houses, today only partially inhabited. The intervention includes the conversion of the ground floor spaces, until now used as storage, to accommodate the new living area with kitchen and dining room, while the upper floor is reinterpreted in a contemporary way, hosting the living room and the master bedroom with walk-in closet.
The key element of the intervention is the new internal staircase, conceived as a “monumental staircase”: a half-spiral in white marble rising from the ground and, in its final section, lightened by glass steps suspended on a corten steel structure. The landing, also made of glass, is supported by a corten steel frame and opens onto a double-height wall clad in a patchwork of natural leather, becoming a scenographic backdrop and the project’s distinctive feature.
The ground floor is renewed with light-colored plaster, microcement flooring, and contemporary insertions such as sliding glass doors and bronze mirrors that amplify the perception of space. On the first floor, instead, the original rustic character is preserved: wooden trusses, exposed brick walls, and terracotta flooring dialogue with new corten details, creating a balance between historical memory and contemporary language.
The project thus breathes new life into a twentieth-century rural building, reinterpreting its historical identity with an intervention that blends tradition and innovation, past and present, in a spatial and material continuum that tells the story of a new season of living for Cascina Crocetta.