Project
Casa Solenne
- Location
- Puglia, Italy
- Category
- Mediterranean Luxury Residence
- Completed
- 2023
A house that follows the day
The site is a sloping hillside of old olive terraces, a kilometre above the Adriatic. The brief was simple: a family house that feels cool in August and open all year, with no room that faces only one direction.
We kept the building low and long, set along the contour of the terrace so that not a single olive tree was removed. Deep eaves of pale lime plaster hold back the high summer sun, while the winter light travels far into each room.
Every room opens to a different hour of the day.
At the centre sits a open court, paved in travertine and shaded by a single fig. It draws the sea breeze through the plan and gives every bedroom, the kitchen and the long living room a second view inward.
Inside, oak joinery and bronze ironmongery are the only warm notes. Walls are left in hand-finished lime, which softens with each season and takes on the colour of the hour.
The pool is cut into the lowest terrace, its edge level with the horizon. Planting is local and dry: rosemary, caper, wild fennel and the existing olives, pruned rather than replaced.