Architect Alvaro Siza planned the recovery of the 17th hundred century old Villa Colonnese, placed in a beautiful natural position on the dorsal of Colli Berici, and around it, along the slope of the hills, he designed seven new houses: all buildings are located inside a park, also exclusively designed and organized. It is a unique and complete arrangement.

The restoration of Villa Colonnese
The originally 17th hundred century old Villa Colonnese has been severely damaged and transformed, especially during the second half of last century. The recovery planned to set free the original building on the four sides, the old building   was characterized by a simple but elegant structure. This restoration was suppose to be executed by   the demolition of the near and leaning buildings to the original structure.
The totality of the intervention resulted in a reduction of the total volumetric areas, with demolition and new construction distributed along the slope of the hill. This allowed to reduce the impact on the surrounding nature.
The Villa, that is in an elevated position, becomes again the main and central building with respect to the "surrounding". The adjacent "Oratorio" has been maintained. The latter one is accessible through a walking path. The adjacent Italian garden has been recovered. Inside, where the organizing elements were lost, Mr Siza planned to intervene with a reconstruction that would follow an historical typology of the style of Andrea Palladio.

The new homes
The new buildings designed by Siza, a total of seven houses, are placed along the hill and inside the park that surrounds Villa Colonnese.
Two houses are near the Villa: one is almost finished - home 4 -   it develops over three floors; it has a compact volume; the other - home 3 - is already finished. It develops over two floors. It is characterized by a balcony and a lateral walking path in a C shape.
Two houses - home 1 and 2 - are missing only the finishing. They are placed in the East-West direction; they have two floors, with a patio typology.
The other three houses - home 5, 6, and 7 -   are at the same finishing level of homes 1 and 2, they also have two floors and are placed in the North-South direction.
In Siza's homes at Villa Colonnese, it is possible to find some of the typical elements of his way to design.
First, the research of geometrically squared volumes , where the Portuguese architect intervenes with planes variations, returns, overhang, horizontal cuts of the front to allow a modulated and soft entry of natural light. In a special environmental context such as that of   Colli Berici, it acquires special value the care for the relationship between architecture and nature. This is taken care on one hand by shaped constructions in such a way to pay respect to the nature and in agreement with the landscape. On the other hand, with a specific sensibility to the situation of   the scenery and   to the communication between the "inside" and the "outside" of the architecture. The internal distribution of the areas is always simple and harmonic; it almost "requires" the finishing by furniture and decoration - as usually happened in the development of his works - specially designed by Siza, to realize the idea of "total work", where we can find unit between the different steps of design intervention and the art.