We welcome Est Living into Casa Chiaroscuro
[Extract] Melbourne design practice Biasol welcome us inside their Casa Chiaroscuro project, earning its title from the artistic technique of chiaroscuro. Biasol director Jean-Pierre Biasol has called on his Italian heritage to inform a newly built home in Melbourne. Chiaroscuro, meaning ‘light-dark’ in Italian, is the artistic effect of contrasting light and shade. This technique influenced the design firm’s approach to creating a modern and minimal abode for a young family, by balancing natural light and dark surfaces.
The clients called on Biasol to design a comfortable family home, with adequate room to host large gatherings. They hoped their Casa Chiaroscuro could nurture them with both voluminous and intimate spaces.
“The client’s design brief –modern, minimal and beautiful – gave us the freedom to use colour and materials in a way we hadn’t seen before,” Jean-Pierre says. To ensure a timeless and tranquil home, Biasol drew inspiration from chiaroscuro to emphasise tonal contrast. For the exterior, this took shape by selecting grey concrete render on the upper storey and black timber cladding for the lower storey. Inside, sunlight spills into the home through floor-to-ceiling glass windows, sliding doors and a central skylight, highlighting the monochromatic scheme.
