Architecture and Art in Construction

Architect Angonese knew how to play with the elements of tradition and reinterpret local shapes, colors and materials. His particular focus was on preserving the privacy of the two independent villas with their pools and at the same time communicating harmoniously with the wonderful landscape that surrounds them.

Through the arrangement of windows and openings, Angonese has created perspectives that are tantamount to an artistic intervention.

His congenial partner in this interplay of color and form was the artist Manfred Alois Mayr, who designed a unique color concept for the two villas that gives Villa Baronessa its unmistakable character.

The oxide red of the steep rock faces of the Mendel Mountains gives the plasterwork a hint of Andalusian sunshine, lime white, sulphur yellow and vine black are reminiscent of the local viticulture and the noble ultramarine blue and gold bear witness to the aristocratic ancestry and extravagant past of the ensemble.

The result of their interplay, embedded in a lovely landscape and surrounded by magnificent residences, vineyards and sacred buildings, is a small Garden of Eden that makes you say: " Here I want to be, here I want to stay."

Walter Angonese

Architect Walter Angonese made his mark in particular with his wine architecture, which he realized for the Josef Hofstätter winery in Tramin and the Manincor winery in Caldaro, for example. His projects also include architectural adaptations of important historical buildings, such as Tyrol Castle and Kufstein Fortress. The guiding principles here are always the site- and culture-related design process and building on existing structures. Angonese is a full professor at the Accademia di architettura of the Università della Svizzera italiana in Mendrisio.

Walter Angonese about Villa Baronessa

to add or to continue building? a recurring question! we have decided to continue, to continue building the villa, which dates back to the fifties and was projected by walter pinzer for baroness weihrauch di pauli. as a southern conclusion to the formerly remarkable private park of the palace weihrauch di pauli, we took over the existing building and led it into the 21st century. towards the east, an extension of the villa, which takes over the forms and themes of the palace, and attached to this extension a small building, we always lovingly called "teahouse". this small pavilion-like building does not want to deny references to japanese examples and yet it tries to act with forms of our landscape and its living culture. the round balcony of the main building reinterprets the kitchen vault, a connecting patio serves as a tonal and architectural link with its aim to continue and not to add. the "teahouse" as an indipendent small building with its hipped roof reinterprets the local monk and nun roof in a contemporary way. but the protagonist of the whole remains the landscape, the view over the vineyards to lake kaltern, the view of the dolomites or the mendel mountain range.

Manfred Alois Mayr

The artistic work of Manfred Alois Mayr is characterized by many years of experience in investigating site-specific conditions. The examination of space plays a central role, not so much in its constructive aspects as in the sense of a researching spacial anthropology - of the presence of man in space. The space and its inventory, the visualisation of actions, stories and memories taking place in it are the focus of the investigation. Manfred Alois Mayr's approach to art-in-architecture projects is a sensory experience of places and spaces and arises directly from the architectural structure as a spatial and social whole.

Homage to the Artist

In Villa Baronessa Manfred Alois Mayr not so much places guests "in front of" colour as "in the midst" of it. Colour is not merely used in the sense of design or decor, but it is captured in a multi-layered relationship with the form and substance of the building and its environment, a social, historical and geographical experiential space: lime white, oxide red, ultramarine blue, vine black and brown, sulphur yellow, gold, semi-matt and high gloss - these are the colours and aspects of Villa Baronessa.

– Marion Piffer Damiani, Art historian, curator and journalist

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