The main living room in Vincenzo and Claudia Rose di Cotiis’ retreat, an 18th-century villa in Tuscany.

With his minimalist flair, Vincenzo de Cotiis has added a contemplative contemporary layer to the lived-in walls of an 18th-century Tuscan villa.

“I was fascinated by the traces of time evident in the architecture, the absolute perfection of details, colours and the unfinished feel. Above all, we found the atmosphere to be unique, surrounded by silence and light” VINCENZO DE COTIIS

With his signature merging of modernity and the monastic, Italian architect and artist Vincenzo de Cotiis has refreshed an early-18th century villa, transforming it from decaying grandeur to a softly luminous 21st-century vision of raw romance. Part of the appeal of the sweeping four-storey escape lies in its solid and reassuring embrace of natural materials. de Cotiis has intuitively balanced their old-as-time allure with handcrafted contemporary pieces that look boldly futuristic but are informed by Italian design traditions. Here, de Cotiis expands on life during the pandemic and how the concept of home, now more than ever, feeds a universal search and need for meaning.

I had been in lockdown for two months. I was isolating between my home and my studio in Milan, and was always with my wife, Claudia Rose. Luckily, creativity can’t be stopped by the lockdown and I was focused more than ever on my new projects and ideas.

I think the best recipe for recovering from a crisis is hard work. I believe that, with time, tourists will come back to Italy to see the cultural richness and beauty of this country. Certainly, all bad things have their brighter side, too. It can be a good lesson to all of us. I believe that people will turn to high quality, sustainability and a healthy lifestyle.

I’m constantly thinking about how to improve interiors. I believe that good design helps us live better. It’s a reflection of who we are. Going forward, it will be a challenging time for the field of design and I can imagine that a highly selective market will leave only unique creators who have something valuable to say standing.

I believe I am a deeply classical man. Belonging to a certain Italian spirit is, I believe, evident in everything I create. It’s impossible for me not to acknowledge what is already there, what is pre-existing to any intervention

— the wealth and charm, and at the same time a kind of imposition. My projects are almost always born from an interaction between the contemporary and the existing, and the final outcome is often unpredictable.

I have great affection for salvaged materials. There are constant elements that reappear in my work, such as recycled fibreglass. I also enjoy the process of creating with salvaged pieces — the attempt to bring together seemingly disparate and very different materials; the incessant formal research that often draws from the natural world; and the experimentation with techniques that do not always belong to the world of art. In my new body of work titled Éternel, for instance, I put elements under vacuum to join materials — it’s a kind of fixation process. I experimented with fibreglass, metals, glass and stone. The ethereal luminescence and transparency of materials, such as Murano glass and iridescent metals, alter perception while the sutures attempt the impossible: patching time.

I also love working with natural and local materials. The cipollino apuano marble in my home in the town of Pietrasanta, Tuscany, for example, is a local stone and has a very beautiful pattern — and its colour matches the tone of the existing walls.

Pietrasanta is a very special, exclusive pearl of Tuscany. My wife and I have been visiting the area for many years, since we were young. It’s located on a hill, surrounded by mountains and Roman architecture. I love it because it attracts creative people. It’s a city full of art galleries and exquisite restaurants, and is visited by the most important classical musicians who perform during numerous festivals. In addition to that, in a few moments you can be by the sea, arriving there via bicycle on a picturesque path. When we discovered the house we fell in love with it. I was fascinated by the traces of time evident in the architecture, the absolute perfection of details, colours and the unfinished feel. Above all, we found the atmosphere to be unique, surrounded by silence and light, almost monastic. The project followed a natural process, bringing original materials and colours back to the surface. Each inserted object naturally adapted to the environment in an absolutely contextual way, along with the addition of objects of art. I’m very satisfied with the final result. This home is a weekend retreat but not only this. Every environment must have a meaning: one’s own home, perhaps even more. It is the chosen place where the most intimate gestures occur, spaces that you want to share with those who are dearest to you, a place where you stop and think that you would never want to have a place other than that. The house must represent you and not represent you. It must welcome what you would like to be part of your daily life. A place of serenity dedicated to us. decotiis.it