With its warm materials and cool design, Fontesecca is a modern interpretation of a traditional Umbrian farmhouse. Brought to life by the design team at Special Umbria, the project was completed in July 2022.
Fontesecca is a 350sqm villa that has been built on the site of a derelict farmhouse, from which as many materials as possible were repurposed for the new building. The house’s unique location,tucked into the hills just five minutes from Città della Pieve, offers picture-book views towards the pretty hilltop town, a valley on one side, the Val di Chiana the other, and Tuscany beyond.
The property is built over three floors: four bedrooms on the first floor; kitchen, dining and living space, as well as a further double, on the ground floor; and a TV room on the lower-ground floor.
The modern farmhouse aesthetic is a tactile mix of materials and a fanfare of soft lines creating a delightful interplay between circular shapes, such as the dining table, and more linear angles, such as the smooth resin stairs.
Outside, there is a stunning 13m x 4m heated pool with views to match, and a path that leads through the trees to a centuries-old, original wine cellar that has been transformed into a cantina. The indoor/outdoor kitchen and pizza oven enable guests to cook here, and they can dine at a long table shaded by a pergola, with the same hypnotic views beyond.
We have choosen the original materials and almost all materials of the building we had to take down. The current building is a new construction.
Team:
Architects: Special Umbria: Rob Landeweerd and Domenico Casamassima
Photographer: Alessandro Zaccaro of FancyFactory
Materials used:
Facade cladding: Natural stone exposed walls
Flooring: Handmade terracotta tiles flooring combined with resin and sicilian hand made cementine tiles in bathrooms
Doors: Made by local carpenter
Windows: Wood hand made by local carpenter
Roofing: Old reclaimed cotto tiles
Interior lighting: Different brands like gervasoni, davide grippo
Interior furniture: a lot of hand made furniture combined with B&B Italia (husk),
Miniforms, fratelli levaggi, but also KAVE home
