Residence in Puglia

The house is located on the hills around Cisternino, immersed in a very beautiful rural landscape.

From the beginning, our project idea has been about respect—for the surrounding landscape and for the local stone-building traditions.

Our design aims to be archaic, referring to the tradition of Apulian dry-stone walls, specchie (ancient stone mounds), and also to the dolmens and menhirs still present in the Puglia territory.

We worked with planes—both vertical and horizontal—rejecting the effect of a closed box. We grounded the house in the land, respecting it. Our intention was not to create a barrier imposed on the land, but rather to generate a sense of continuity with it.

The north and south walls feature large windows (shaded by the overhanging roof), not only to benefit from the light and views, but also to allow the landscape to enter the house, creating a sense of continuity, complete permeability to nature, lightness, and transparency, as is clearly shown in the section.

Aided by the steep terrain, we made the house virtually invisible from the dirt road that runs along the edge of the property, as well as from the facing valley. The idea is one of impermanence, of temporariness—an architecture that can return to nature.