Villa Monte Argentario

The villa is located in a residential area and a place with a privileged landscape. The dominant view and the optimal southwest exposure are a tangible presence in every space of the house. The primary requirement of the project is to establish an intense relationship with the beauty of the territory, with its landscape values; of course all this will take place without any mimicry, but especially by building, with contemporary elements, a dialectical relationship of mutual enhancement where architecture appears from the landscape and establishes a fruitful dialogue with it. The building is the result of a double intervention: the reuse of an existing house and a new extension next to it. The project insists, in fact, on the dialogue between these two kingdoms as a metaphor both of a traditional/national privacy and of a contemporary/clear extroversion. In fact, if the existing building maintains its dark and massive nature, the new one is bright and destructured. If the first maintains its original dated geometry and its dark-coloured materials, the new plays with a minimal geometry and with contemporary and luxurious materials. On the one hand, we have in fact the need to identify a synthesis, a balance between the nature of the building and the morphological and chromatic values of the place in which it is installed, in order to add value to the richness of the landscape. On the other hand, we have the desire to place the character of the interiors in the wake of a new tradition whose identity is represented by comfort, domesticity and appropriateness. All this by giving to the house, nestled in the hills, a refined and minimal look. Everything said before is applicable especially to the the modulation of light and views, to the shape of the spaces, to the discretion of the materials. An ideal longitudinal route that crosses the entire construction allows to find a convergence between two significant operational aspects: firstly, the redefinition of the internal space which translates into a sequence of rooms in close relationship one with each other and with the surrounding landscape; secondly, the identification of the character of the building which lies in the horizontal sediment. This is most evident in the south dining room, provided with longitudinal-cutting windows which frame a view of the surrounding landscape. The material, the finishes used for the outer coating contribute to show the morphology of the building as an ideal unitary mass. The limited range of materials used – travertine even present in the stone cladding of the interiors, plaster, teak wood used to give continuity to the external horizontal planes - has helped to make the house a presence of great style and elegance. Connecting element between the two buildings is the long body of water that transforms into a swimming pool, “L” shaped. The pool, with a Jacuzzi and diving area, is the real trait d'union outside the complex.