Casa nell’agro di Ostuni

Nov 15

Written by Omar Dahabra

Location: Ostuni, Italy
Year: 2025
Architects: Tela Architettura
Photography by: Nicolò Panzeri

Set in the countryside of Ostuni, among centuries-old olive trees and long views of the Adriatic Sea and the white skyline of the city, Casa nell’agro di Ostuni reinterprets an unfinished rural dwelling into a calm and continuous architecture that speaks the language of light and matter.

When the owners discovered the site, they found an abandoned concrete shell, an unfinished house that had never been completed. Instead of demolishing it, they decided to preserve what was already there, using its geometry as the foundation for a new project rooted in restraint and permanence. The intervention reconfigures the interior spaces while extending the existing volume with subtle precision, wrapping it in materials that belong to the surrounding landscape.

The project draws its identity from the dialogue between construction and terrain. Large glazed openings dissolve the threshold between inside and out, pulling the countryside into the domestic space. Natural lime plaster and sand-colored microcement form a continuous, tactile skin that defines every surface. These materials, shaped into essential geometries, generate a sequence of offset planes that become steps, benches, and built-in furniture. The staircase leading to the pool doubles as seating for the outdoor lounge, the fireplace emerges from the living room wall, and the master bed rises from the floor in seamless continuity.

Material defines space, but light completes it. Soft northern light spreads evenly across the pale walls, while the eastern side glows with warmer tones in the morning. Iron window frames trace a thin brown line against the plaster, guiding the gaze toward the monumental trunks of olive trees. Within this quiet geometry, walnut doors and joinery introduce warmth and texture, forming a tactile vocabulary immediate to the eye and to the touch.

The living room centers on the fireplace, around which low horizontal planes extend to shape circulation and furniture. A walnut screen filters the entrance without interrupting light, defining spaces through density rather than separation. The continuity of the microcement floor is softened by natural fiber rugs that define areas for rest and gathering. Wood maintains a muted brown tone in dialogue with the iron details, reinforcing the atmosphere of measured intimacy.

The sleeping quarters contain three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and large openings framing the Apulian landscape. The windows act as measured cuts in the thick envelope, bringing in light while preserving privacy and shade. To the east, a slender pergola and the natural canopy of the olive trees temper the summer heat, creating pockets of filtered light.

Outside, the house settles into the topography through dry-stone walls built with local stone. These layered terraces guide the movement of the visitor, articulating access through ramps and steps, while Mediterranean vegetation wraps the perimeter with shades of green and grey. At the edge of the site, an infinity pool finished in anthracite microcement extends toward the sea, turning the water into a still mirror that reflects the tones of the surrounding land.

Neither nostalgic nor overtly new, Casa nell’agro di Ostuni finds its place in continuity, with the unfinished structure, with the agricultural landscape, and with the slow rhythm of the Apulian countryside. It is an architecture of presence and quietness, where matter, light, and time converge into a single atmosphere. Text description by the architects.

Source: www.telaarchitettura.com
Area: 150 sqm
Structural design: Studio Pomes
General contractor: Gruppo Convertini Costruzioni
Electrical systems: Fratelli Palmisano di Palmisano Antonio e Giovanni Snc
Plumbing systems: Termosud di Francioso Vincenzo

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