CASA B | Giorgio Cerrai

B House addresses the urgent need for architecture to adapt to the dictates of nature, increasingly central to contemporary living. The Villa springs from personal experience of this place and its fundamentals: sea, pinewood, the colours and fragrances of the Mediterranean maquis. It is a long horizontal structure that recovers and re-interprets two pre-existing buildings from the 1960s. Realigned and placed on the same level, the new structures now overlook a large pool that sets off the natural look of the slate cladding. B House’s stylistic form also inspired the interior architecture, which uses wood and glazed lava stone, while the Mediterranean colour palette is prevalently green and blue. The long 25-metre beams and all the windows and doors facing the sea transform the interiors into a stunning patio. The House has a simple physiognomy concealing the tenacity and rigour that determined the choice of construction solutions and the definition of all the details. The project needed to highlight the relationship with the landscape and the smells, flavours and nuances of this famous Tuscan seaside resort. The design also took certain bioclimatic elements into account, allowing the sea breeze to enter via the main, seaward-viewing west facade. All this is encapsulated by a Maremma diorama in the form of a centuries-old olive tree in the internal courtyard of the first building, as if to symbolise oxygen, coolness and the beckoning marine panorama beyond.