Chianti Villa

Facing the Chianti hills, the villa unfolds across two floors and was stripped back and rebuilt around the life of a large, lively household, with animals and children.

One list of materials runs through the house, and it does not change between what holds it up and what you touch: timber and iron in the roof trusses, concrete and wood underfoot. The same list carries on into the furniture, all of it made to measure. The joinery first, with a wardrobe that climbs to the pitch of the roof in the main bedroom: a gabled volume built inside it, hiding the door to the bathroom.

This master bathroom opens on three sides, unbound: basins, mirror and tub look out over the vineyards and the family’s private lake.

Metal follows the same discipline: mezzanines in the children’s rooms, and the sculptural staircase at the centre of the open plan living. The dark steel is softened by warm timber treads and edged with a balustrade of tensioned stainless-steel cables. Drawn vertically through the space, the cables form an almost immaterial screen: more than a safety element, a precise graphic gesture.

Warmth comes from the wide natural linen curtains, the brass of the light fittings and taps, and signature pieces such as a Barovier chandelier in the bedroom, and the Chelini greyhound: sitting at the foot of the stair, keeping watch over this large family.