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This renovation and extension project of an old Sicilian manor house located between Mount Edna and the Ionian Sea in a spectacular landscape imbued with history and ancient myths was many years in the making. The brief involved turning the original house into a luxury country hotel amidst ancient fruit groves and adding two new independent sections. The aim of the intervention was to maintain and continue the patrician elegance of the historic property, a typical landowner’s home in a fruit-growing estate steeped in traditional farming practices. The intrinsic refinement of the original architectural features has been preserved and enhanced with the development of sleek rational spaces and the expressive use of a minimal amount of materials. The high-ceilinged interiors now offer guests magnificent panoramas over the landscape whose many exceptional features - including views over the sea - stand against the backdrop of the ever-present volcano, the source of so much history and so many cultural references. Once the storage place for ancient barriques and where craftsmen labored, the former cellars are now sophisticated environments for guests. The original stone walls retain all the material feel and mystique of this special part of the house.
No mere add-ons, the new extensions are an integral part of the overall adaptive re-use program for the old house. Once again, the byword is minimal use of materials - local lava stone and a minimal color palette - in keeping with a landscape characterized by the massive bulk of the volcano. Minimal design for maximum effect through a process of subtraction rather than addition.
The two extensions are on opposite sides of the historic building.
The first is an isolated two-room volume of almost stark simplicity. It stands like a clear transparent box, the fixed and sliding glass side walls opening directly out onto the fruit groves, as if to give the impression that the rooms are just...
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