The volume illustrates the project by Carlo Mollino for Casa Garelli at Champoluc, in Val d’Ayas (Aosta Valley). A rather unusual task: to dismantle an old mountain hut and move it to a new site, located on the opposite side of the valley, and then restore it, or rather rethink it completely, to turn it into a holiday home.
At the height of a brilliant career, as designer and photographer, aviation enthusiast and racing driver, expert skier and passionate mountaineer, Mollino designed and created a small but extraordinarily intense work, a reconstruction that, in reality, turned out to be an unprecedented and sometimes reckless assemblage of existing parts, revised and corrected, and other parts made from scratch, often designed on the models of the Alpine tradition. By playing on the juxtaposition of surfaces and volumes, materials and colors, Mollino staged a sophisticated process of invention that subverted many commonplaces, compelling a rethink of the boundaries between ‘vernacular’ buildings and modern architecture.
The book is enriched by study sketches and photographs, produced by Marcello Mariana, documenting in detail the project and the final outcome.