Nullus enim locus sine genio est.
There’s no place without its genius.
[Servio]
We approached the project of this resort with the same spirit as the first men, devoting each one of the sixteen suites to a genius. He defines their theme, he suggested the ways in which they are lived, he determined their dimensions and specifies their logics.
The temporality of the stay, primal condition of architecture for hospitality, allows us to give space to each genius, radicalizing their fundamental connection with the houses.
In this way, the singularity of each place is made more explicit and the relation between the man and his house is brought to the limit.
Nevertheless, all of the geniuses poses two pre-conditions.
The first is the connection with the landscape. The olive grove is the result of a millennial history of symbiotic bond between men and nature; its beauty lies in this cooperation, built in a time in which the actions of men were tuned with the rhythm and possibilities of nature. A built and artificial nature, so ancient and deeply-rooted in the territory that turns into a new nature, new rough material to work with. A still productive yet immobile landscape.
The second condition is the importance of the rituals of common life.
Times of idleness, away from home, are a precious moment to get in touch with one other, to live together. Every house influences different ways of experiencing shared moments, each genius tries to suggest a different setting for meeting others.
The project for the resort, consisting of the Villa Carmine masseria and sixteen new villas, is located in a twenty-four-hectare centuries-old olive grove near Carovigno.
Each villa, each surrounded by at least one hectare of garden, is based on an idea, a spatial theme linked to some of the fundamental aspects of everyday life, collective living and living the landscape. The result is different experiences, capable of intensifying the singularity and specificity of each villa.The existing masseria, Villa Carmine, renovated and enlarged, represents the heart of the resort, within which the restaurant and services are located. Next to it, inside a disused quarry, there is the spa, dug into the rock.
