House Of Traditions In Simala / Martino Picchedda

Architects: Martino Picchedda
Area: 500 m²
Year: 2024
Photographs: Cédric Dasesson
Manufacturers: Italcementi, Marmi & Pietre I.C.S. s.r.l., Oristano Inerti Srl, Settef
Architectural Design: Arch. Martino Picchedda
Contractors: Impresa NURRA Srl, Pisano Bruno Costruzioni Srl
Construction Supervision: Arch. Martino Picchedda
Client: Municipality of Simala – Unione Comuni Parte Montis
Project Co-Funding: Municipality of Simala, RAS Territorial Development Project (PST)
Construction Costs: €145,000
Total Project Cost: €250,000
Country: Italy

House of Traditions in Simala, designed by Martino Picchedda in Simala, Sardinia, adapts a 19th-century courtyard house into a civic exhibition space that integrates memory, landscape, and local identity. By preserving existing materials and limiting structural interventions, the project reframes architectural ruins as social infrastructure. Traditional paving, basalt flooring, and fragments of original tiles reconnect the building to its past use, while ecological strategies enhance its resilience. The project supports slow tourism and community engagement, positioning architecture as a means to regenerate both space and collective memory.

House of traditions in simala / martino picchedda

House of Traditions in Simala, located 45 kilometers from Oristano in central Sardinia, transforms a rural 19th-century residence into a shared civic and cultural platform. In the village of Simala, where agriculture and pastoral life remain embedded in the landscape, the project reinterprets architectural ruins not as remnants of loss but as instruments for reactivation. The site becomes a point where history, spatial openness, and collective use converge.

Led by architect Martino Picchedda, the intervention employs a restrained and precise methodology to adapt the original structure without distorting its historical value. The courtyard house, formerly the home of a landowner and the center of agricultural operations, is now used for exhibitions and community functions. The project reads the existing structure as a sequence of layers, each one contributing to a continuous architectural narrative that remains legible through minimal transformation.

Initial work began by removing vegetation and accumulated debris that had overtaken the site. This act, though functional, was treated as symbolic—an unveiling of latent spatial and cultural potential. The uncovered ruins now shape the architectural language of the project. Structural walls were consolidated but kept incomplete, framing a central void that allows public engagement without prescribing a fixed program. These elements establish a threshold between past intimacy and present collectivity.

The design approach draws on historical references such as Piranesi’s imaginative ruins and Alberto Burri’s interventions in Gibellina. These influences inform the treatment of architectural memory and material continuity. The courtyard features traditional “impedrau” paving that reflects Sardinian domestic typologies. Indoors, basalt slabs laid with wide joints over a draining bed help manage stormwater, integrating function and tradition. Fragments of the original “tellas” stone tiles are repurposed within the paving system to reinforce the site’s material lineage.

All added architectural elements are minimal and secondary to the preserved structure. Lime-based plaster, applied using ecological methods, protects the existing masonry without erasing its surface history. No effort was made to reconstruct or idealize the building’s original condition. Its incomplete state remains visible, allowing the surfaces to speak of use, erosion, and adaptation. The space remains open, functionally and symbolically, to future reinterpretation.

This transformation allows the courtyard to serve as a community exhibition space, reactivating what was once a private agricultural complex. Its open character, restrained detailing, and sensitivity to material presence contribute to a renewed civic role. The ruins are not romanticized but respected as frameworks that support new public life. Their exposure supports a narrative of endurance rather than nostalgia.

The project extends beyond architectural boundaries into the realm of local economy and identity. It now hosts exhibitions, markets, and cultural activities that contribute to the development of slow tourism in Simala. By grounding itself in local material practices and the rhythms of village life, the project supports a model of regeneration that resists generic solutions and privileges rooted interventions.

House of Traditions in Simala presents a case of architecture that listens to context rather than imposing a new order. It engages with decay and memory as spatial tools, providing a civic structure that grows from what already exists. In doing so, it positions Simala as a site of experimental heritage work, where architecture plays a role in shaping shared futures from inherited forms.