Set along the ridge of a Maremma hillside, between two valleys and in visual dialogue with the distant fortress of Magliano in Tuscany, Borgo Banditaccia is restored as a unified organism. A rural settlement that shaped the agricultural landscape for over a century, later reduced to a fragmented presence, now re-emerges through a project that weaves together architecture, landscape, and the human dimension of living.
The intervention is not conceived as a simple renovation, but as a process of reconciliation between rural memory and a contemporary way of inhabiting. The project takes as its generative core the only authentic remnants of the original complex—the vaulted cart tracks and the compact northern volume—preserving their materiality and character not out of nostalgia, but as the foundation for a renewed continuity. Incoherent and fragile additions accumulated over time are removed and recomposed into a new balance, shaping a compact yet porous organism capable of engaging with light, wind, shadow, and distance.
The skyline unfolds as a calibrated composition of pitched roofs, terraces, and flat coverings, forming a restrained rhythm that avoids any sense of protagonism while establishing a measured relationship with the horizon. Light is never displayed as an effect; it is filtered, carved, and set into vibration across surfaces through solids and voids, deep shadows, and carefully positioned openings.
Three materials guide the entire project as an essential grammar: local stone, reclaimed brick, and pigmented exposed concrete. These are primary, tactile materials, never reduced to mere cladding, creating surfaces that respond to the passing of hours and seasons. The relationship between interior and exterior is continuous and controlled: openings of varying scale and depth regulate views and protect intimacy, allowing the landscape to remain the true protagonist.
Between the residential core and the building housing the indoor pool and fitness area, a vegetated pergola creates an intermediate space suspended between architecture and nature—a shaded, fragrant outdoor room where time slows down. The overall layout behaves like a small Mediterranean village, composed of closely spaced volumes, narrow passages, shaded spaces, and sudden openings.
The indoor pool, housed within the former stable, preserves the typological memory of agricultural outbuildings while translating it into a contemporary language. Through the shape of its concrete shell, combined with zenithal light and natural ventilation, the building functions as a passive environment, capable of self-regulation without reliance on invasive mechanical systems.
Here, sustainability is not proclaimed as a slogan, but practiced through the use of local materials, dry construction techniques, timber prefabrication, rainwater harvesting, and the restoration of the original land contours. Borgo Banditaccia thus becomes a small living community: an agriturismo composed of a caretaker’s house, six compact dwellings, and shared communal spaces. A place where architecture does not impose itself, but settles gently into the landscape, restoring rhythm to light, truth to materials, and offering a slower, more grounded and conscious way of living.
