La Vista Rooms | Talamone, Italy | 2021

[Presicci+Pantanella D’Ettorre Architetti]

Quiet Rural Geometries

The eight new rooms of La Vista are situated on a slope of a hill, in southern Tuscany, framed by the Bay of Talamone and Monte Argentario. The project stems from the conversion and renovation of an existing agricultural shed into eight farmhouse rooms, that offer a thrilling view of the natural surroundings and enjoy the landscape’s healing energy.

The long, narrow building sits on the edge of a steep terrain with the sea and the hills in the background. The main purpose of the architectural concept was to respect the quality of places, underline and reinforce the impressive environmental scenery by choosing essential forms, natural tones and harmonious materials.

The use of natural tones camouflages the building to its surroundings, blending the spaces into the Tuscan Maremma nature, giving the perfect balance between comfort and calmness. The interior design in fact welcomes with its warm hues, yielded by the great use of wood, travertino and linen.

Large openings illuminate each room with plenty of natural light, and accentuate the interaction of the building with the landscape. In fact, at sunset, the large glass surfaces reflect the slight pinkish sky light, which blends in with the colour of the new building façades, creating a single external chromatic envelope.

Four rooms face the hills and the other four face the sea, the Bay of Talamone and its Fortress. In the front central rooms the bed is in the middle, facing the sea, so guests can enjoy the view in the morning and at sunset.

The rooms, each one with almost square floor plans and private entrances, are arranged next to each other along the entire length of the central double wall, which divides the building’s interior space and allows the positioning of installations, contributing to the improvement of sound insulation, already guaranteed by the use of highly sound-absorbent panels.

To ensure high levels of acoustic and thermal insulation, and to meet fire safety requirements, an insulated crawl space separates the rooms from the existing roof. The aim was to create spaces between inside and outside, an integral part of the landscape and, at the same time, a unique and welcoming refuge. Text description by the architects.