Who is the Old Lady? Why Domus Alberti?

Who is La Vecchia Signora (The Old Lady)?

In the heart of Frontin di Trichiana (Belluno), there is a house of a family, that of the Alpago-Novello, whose origins date back to more than 700 years ago. Standing for more than 300 years, the house has always been the family nest, sometimes for short summer periods, sometimes as a permanent home. Much more than a simple residence, the house is still the nucleus of the surrounding peasant village. A simple place, surrounded by greenery, where work in the fields, cultivation, and livestock remain the main elements of employment. The Old Lady, as the house is called, is characterized by an architectural style that no longer exists, and in the corridors, inside the Villa, people can breathe air full of memories, stories, and the aftermath of centuries of wars, revolutions, and evolving artistic currents.

Why Domus Alberti?

“Man does not camouflage himself in a romantic abandonment, but organizes (nature) by pivoting on himself”: the love for architecture has characterized the Alpago-Novello family for several generations: from Valentino, in 1700, the first architect and artist from Frontin, to Alberto today, the creative and design approach has never ceased to be part of the family’s DNA. The architect who most characterized the history of the Alpago-Novellos is Alberto, son of the doctor Luigi, who lived between 1889 and 1984.
His creative spirit has guided him in numerous projects and important collaborations, together with relevant personalities such as Ponti, Cabiati, and Portaluppi. When, in 1918, the house was devastated by the bombings of the First World War, Alberto, together with his father Luigi, embarked on restoring the structure, designing roofs, floors, furniture, and decorations. Today the Old Lady is told to its visitors characterized by a strong artistic and architectural imprint of Alberto: through an exploratory journey inside the rooms and corridors of the house, it is possible to tell the story of a member of the family that made the house his own.
Therefore, Domus Alberti proposes to discover the Old Lady through objects, decorations, and architectural elements resulting from Alberto’s design, while telling the story of one of the founding architects of the Novecento group.

Is it only about architecture?

The volume covers the following topics: an introduction and photographically tour of the house; a look at the biographical side of Alberto, with timeline and images; photos and elements designed by Alberto in the rebuilding of the house after the I World War such as patterns, graphics, and architectural elements; a focus on gnomonics, the science of sundials, with articles coming from the Italian magazine Domus; a summary of an illustration workshop led by Neue Serie Handdruck that led to the creation of different patterns, starting from elements designed by Alberto.

Paolo Alpago-Novello

Book details:

format: 217×285 mm

pages: 224

paper: inside pages – Munken 120 g/m2, cover- Munken 300g/m2